Why then is Biden having more success at being Trump than the man himself? The difference between the coalitions that brought both into office tells most of the story. Because Biden was the candidate of the professional classes, supported by everyone who was not an obese, super-spreading, opioid-addicted racist, everything he now does almost by definition is correct and in keeping with the advice of vaguely defined experts.

The other difference is that everything Biden proposes has a good chance of actually being carried out. Trump spent all four years of his presidency trying to make a single common-sense change to the way the United States provides medical care to veterans of the armed forces. Instead of forcing them to go to poorly run facilities administered by the Veterans Administration, he very reasonably suggested that the free health care to which they were entitled by virtue of their service could be sought at any hospital and that the feds should simply pick up the bill.

Nearly half a decade later, this seemingly simple process has proven almost impossible to implement. Why? Because the sclerotic bureaucracy doesn’t like it. Trump was regarded almost from the beginning as a kind of usurper whose decrees should be resisted to the furthest extent possible, regardless of how sensible they might have appeared to a disinterested observer.