Because I’m more than a year old, I’m old enough to remember the days of Joe Biden promising to “crush” the virus the day he took office. For most of the 2020 campaign season, the current president asserted that Trump had the ability to do so much more than he was but that he was simply choosing not to do so. That become a common media narrative as well, as every single COVID death was hung around Trump’s neck as if he had personally murdered all of them.

With Biden becoming president, though, we are seeing a sudden shift in the narrative.

In which we learn that when Joe Biden's administration has no coherent policy, it's just because policy is tough, whereas when the Trump administration had no coherent policy, it's because Orange Man Bad.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 19, 2021

When you have a Democrat President a lot of the media quickly becomes like forgiving soccer moms.

Joe: “I will crush the virus!”

3 weeks later

Media: “well there’s really only so much in his control.” pic.twitter.com/XjejzEVmXa

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 19, 2021

Faith in government is a fickle thing. Whenever a Republican is in charge, Democrats assert that the government not only can, but must solve every issue, down to stopping hurricanes from hitting the country. Yet, the moment a Democrat takes over, there’s just not much they can do about anything. Like a leaf in the wind, they are at the mercy of the uncontrollable forces which surround them.

Funny enough, the latter conclusion is actually closer to the truth. Very often, the government can’t do much about certain problems. In relation to COVID, there was never any magic move that Trump could have made that would have significantly changed the course of the virus. Once New York so thoroughly bungled their response, it was a forgone conclusion that the pandemic would take hold across the nation. Many Republicans tried to make that very point for much of the last year. It was met with derision and claims of wanting to kill grandma.

Regardless, let Joe Biden take office and suddenly it’s acceptable to push a narrative that he just can’t do much. It’s hard to ignore how convenient that is. It’s also an obvious ploy to cover up for the new administration’s ineptness. Everything they are doing is simply a continuation of Donald Trump’s work, including the escalation of vaccine distribution which was begun under the former president. Biden hasn’t been able to greatly improve on any real aspect of the response despite that being the entire pitch of his campaign. He’s been too busy hiding out from the press, doing tongue bath sessions with CNN, and playing Mario Kart, never mind that he clearly doesn’t have the ability to improve matters anyway.

You see this same dynamic in dealing with China as well. Before, anything that happened in relation to the communist nation was a supposed failure of Trump’s leadership. Now, it’s just a nebulous failure of the world.

If only we knew who the president was. https://t.co/n35oVzRbfO

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 19, 2021

Biden doesn’t have to take responsibility for anything because the press doesn’t demand it. It’s quite the racket they have going. But aren’t you really happy we don’t have to deal with mean tweets anymore?