President Joe Biden’s time in office is equivalent to a rotting apple.

Last semester, as I enjoyed the semi-healthy aura of the new administration, I played both sides — or rather, agreed and disagreed with various aspects of Biden’s decisions like every American should — and accidentally commended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

What has followed my mark of approval is quite a bit of exposure. The fruit of the Biden presidency, which once hinted towards a potentially promising redemption of bipartisan politics, has now sat out in the sun for far too long. The promise of a leader who could solve the COVID-19 pandemic has spoiled.

The biggest blow to the Biden presidency has been the collection of events that occurred in August, a month that has undeniably been the worst of President Biden’s term. Polls have Biden dropping to around a 40 percent approval rating — an ABC News/Washington Post figure has Biden at 44 percent, as compared to 67 percent at the beginning of his presidency. Granted, I have always been skeptical of the approval polls conducted by the Washington Post, but when every single major media outlet has arrived at this consensus, it can be stated that the majority of Americans are disappointed with the choices that President Biden and his staff have made with their executive power.

Although I was emphatic in my defense of President Biden’s commitment to a different America — one that would stray from decisions that expend oceans of resources and money on wars that seriously fracture the image of our country — I miscalculated. I, similar to many citizens, forgot that the way that President Biden had been characterized was entirely paradoxical. Think about it — an elder veteran of Congress, capable of leading a new generation of America with a steady and decisive hand out of the most challenging modern reality in history towards a bright new future. This is a deeply flawed image, though. Nonetheless, it persists even today on the newspapers, websites, social media platforms, minds and lips of American citizens.

There is no individual that was involved with the mire of 21st century congressional politics that could guide the American public with an unwavering character. Even as a lifelong Democrat, President Biden has had moments in which he dissociated from the more modest positions of the political party. One of those moments occurred in 2003, when President Biden was part of the slim minority of Democrats who agreed on the resolution to invade Iraq. Biden has repeatedly denied this fact throughout recent years.

But, when you begin to think critically about President Biden, you start to understand the reason why he was elected. Politically, philosophically and personally — President Biden is the embodiment of the default setting. In fact, I could hardly argue that there is a philosophical or political base to his character.

But then again, do any major politicians possess a foundation like this?

The answer from me is a firm no. President Biden’s predecessor — President Donald Trump — certainly did not. The point of Trump’s presidency was to please a concentrated group of people across the country and it went so poorly that I haven’t read a news article about him or heard any violent little blurbs from him since the conclusion of the 2020 election.

The point of electing President Biden was to please everyone. Time and time again, it seems that Biden is on the side of the people, to the point which I believe he does not have the capacity to make the decisions that the country truly needs rather than the ones they want. I am talking about decisions that will benefit the country in the long run — decisions that have to be made even though concentrated groups of people might hate his administration for doing so.

More specifically, President Biden does not possess the power to mandate a vaccine. If you disagree with me on this point, you might want to listen to the thoughts of health professionals and policy experts. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tweeted in late July that “there would be no federal vaccine mandate,” although she admitted that “the administration was looking into the matter.” A notable policy expert — Joe Biden — has also spoken on the matter in December 2020, saying that he “wouldn’t think the vaccine would be mandatory.”

The reason President Biden has failed to persuade the American public to get vaccinated is exceedingly simple. The problem is his character.

Accountability has ceased to be a necessary virtue of politicians, and, naturally, the consequence of this issue is at the forefront of our government. The hard truth of this presidency is that, just like President Trump, President Biden is not liable to the American public. Not when it counts, at least.

If he truly desired to fix the issues that will define his presidency, President Biden would admit his mistakes, but this is a notion that isn’t natural to the politicians of our age. Because they are overwhelmed with the demand for success, officials fail to realize that a humble admission of their wrongs is an act that would produce trust. The American people understand and can accept that their government is not perfect, but what they cannot accept is a government that hides the suffering of millions so that they can continue doing a poor job.

Instead of celebrating the Afghanistan withdrawal as an extraordinary success, President Biden must admit that his administration failed to expedite visas for the Americans left behind in Afghanistan. Biden must stop blaming the Trump administration for the deal with the Taliban and for their disastrous efforts to halt the pandemic so that he can focus on not making crucial errors regarding the same issues. There are American citizens dying because the several dozen hospitals around them don’t have an open ICU bed. Innocent families are being killed and tormented by the Taliban for associating with the United States. It is time to stop labeling the efforts of the U.S. government as successful measures — they’re cover-ups.