These are distressing times for Democrats. For those who supplement their partisan loyalty with wisdom, it should also be an occasion for introspection and recalibration.

The assessment is that it did not have to be this way. Led by Joe Biden, Democrats are paying a hefty price for the path traveled, as well as the alternative road they rejected.

In this age of polarization on steroids, no leader (even one blessed with far more gifts than the current guy) is going to achieve the breakthrough approval of a few presidents of yesteryear.

While recognizing the low ceiling on popular approval imposed by this unyielding divide, Biden’s downward trajectory was not ordained. There is abundant room between the political heights of Ronald Reagan in his prime and the depths of Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush in his final years in office or, more recently, Donald Trump.

Biden’s fall has been rapid and precipitous, even if his low ratings are not firmly predictive of the remaining three years of his term. Reagan’s second and third years hardly rocked the charts.

With some respite from COVID accompanied by a functioning supply chain and a sharp drop in inflation, the possibility of a Biden rebound cannot be discounted.

But those are heavy lifts and far from guaranteed. For now, ask yourself how many Democratic candidates in close, competitive districts are clamoring for Air Force One to bring the president their way.

By any measure, Biden’s numbers are in the tank. His approval quotient is stuck in the low 40s, at best, after being comfortably in the mid-50 range as recently as June.

Republicans tend to fare well even when a point or two down in generic Congressional preference. The Real Clear Politics average currently pegs the Republican advantage at a hefty 4.1 percent.

Asked how interested they are in the coming November election, Republicans now have an intensity advantage of more than a dozen points. That is another indication of a probable November wipeout for Biden’s Democrats.

For further evidence of the state of public opinion, consider the stunning 14-point shift in party identification over the last year. Over the course of 2021, Democrats went from a nine-point advantage to a five-point deficit when voters were asked which party they identify with or lean toward.

If all that does not scream big-problem to every sentient Democrat, then their capacity for denial is truly impressive.

And note, please, that all this has transpired against a backdrop of Donald Trump’s ongoing, wild, fanciful, erratic, evidence-free claims. His base will be forever loyal, but more and more voters, including some Republicans, are turned off. His favorability numbers are steadily in the low range Biden now also inhabits.

Simply put, the standard-bearers of both parties are held in major disregard. Yet Republicans, though mostly still in Trump’s thrall, are seen by significant margins as more capable of governing, and more in line with widely-held values and policy wishes.

With that lay of the land, and with apologies to John Lennon, let’s “Imagine” for a bit. A year into Biden’s presidency is an opportune time to conceive of what might have been.

Imagine that a newly-elected Biden had read the moment and channeled his “transformational” aims to be a healing unifier instead of an overt partisan with vast, expansionary ambitions largely dictated by his party’s progressive flank of which he was never a part.

Imagine that he had correctly, and more humbly, read the very mixed election results of 2020 as a mandate for Trump to depart, but not a whole lot beyond that.

Coming off four years of Trump-fed, non-stop noise, and amidst a crippling pandemic, imagine that Biden had understood that his only real job was to be calm, capable and competent.

As a senator for nearly four decades and an experienced nose-counter, imagine that he had taken stock of an evenly divided Senate including some quite moderate Democrats and a House with the thinnest of margins, and crafted a more modest agenda that was passable and achievable.

Imagine that he had showcased the notably bipartisan infrastructure bill and heralded it across the country instead of framing it as only a precursor to a Christmas wish list of all manner of spending.

Imagine that he had divided that Build Back Better conglomeration into its individual parts; sold the most popular and viable ones on their merits; and then held a number of signing ceremonies for separate bills. In short, that he settled for something instead of going for everything and realizing nothing.

Imagine that he had been diligent and conscientious in managing our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Or that he had spoken with clarity about both the value of immigration and the importance of borders.

That he had taken to heart and acted upon the spike in violent, urban crime. That he had grasped early on the threat of inflation and what it means to countless families already feeling huge financial uncertainty.

Imagine that, just once, he had spoken a hard, unflinching truth to the ultra-woke mob. That he had acknowledged the harm to young children of school closures and endless masking. That he had gone to Georgia to urge support for voting rights instead of delivering an ill-received shaming of those who dare believe in voter identification, complete with dated comparisons to long-dead segregationists.

Imagine that a few weeks from now he could announce the Supreme Court nomination of an outstanding black woman without having diminished and tokenized her from the get-go by embracing identity politics and limiting his search by race and gender.

Lastly, imagine that he had taken stock of both his advanced age and this national phase, and defied conventional assumptions by declaring that he would serve but a single, transitional, restorative term. Think of the political liberation and goodwill that would have accompanied such a selfless stroke.

Biden’s predicament along with that of his party is what it is. Though it could have been otherwise. His first year in the White House is a story of the road not taken.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann