This is something i think about often. One of the most common criticisms from the democrats was the fact that he was not being as fash as he had promised, which ended up with Biden and Kamala going scorched earth on the border, and Kamala promising everything short of building the wall, but "properly, in a respectful manner". Suddenly the default of all mainstream political discourse is that there are too many undesirables, and the disagreement is on how do you want to brutalize them. Things like that make me lose any hope i have on any american people to actually do better.