BIDEN BLUNDERS
Year One of the Biden presidency has resulted in an America Adrift. My November 2020 essay American Renewal envisioned a cooperative bipartisan era. Firstly, Americans weary of the unorthodox and polarizing Trump years decided upon a familiar, center-left alternative. However, the Biden Administration embraced the ambitious and divisive progressive agenda of its assertive and socialist Democratic base. Furthermore, legitimate questions of competence have replaced the issue of temperament that besieged President Trump. Moreover, year one of the Biden Presidency included self-inflicted wounds that undermined the economy, sacrificed energy independence, enabled inflation; politicized the pandemic, facilitated illegal immigration, subverted law enforcement, and forfeited American leadership abroad. Rather than governing in the American tradition of compromise and constructive engagement, President Biden chose a zero-sum contest, misjudging a 50-50 Senate and 222-212 House to be a non-existent FDR-like mandate. In denial, he and his advocates have falsely characterized all reasonable opposition as “racist.”
THE LONG SHADOW OF AFGHANISTAN
As evident at a January 19, 2022, press conference, the second of his presidency, a compliant media can no longer enable the president or conceal his blunders. Likewise, the long shadow of Afghanistan haunts President Biden. The chaotic withdrawal from Kabul following the perplexing abandonment of strategic Bagram Airbase was the beginning of a series of turbulent storms that have shipwrecked the Biden Doctrine and cast America Adrift. Moreover, the manner of the ultimate withdrawal, illogically military before civilian, with billions in equipment abandoned to the enemy, humiliated Americans rather than reassuring them. Therefore, adversaries from Russia to China and Iran are justifiably emboldened. However, allies worldwide are shocked and understandably reconsidering their allegiance. It did not help when the president made a critical mental error by opening the door to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, so long as it was a “limited incursion.”
ILL WINDS AT HOME
Although Afghanistan was the tipping point, the ill winds at home have had the most impact upon pandemic-weary Americans. Seventy percent tell Gallop that they do not want President Biden to stand for election in 2024. Moreover, there is now a creeping suspicion among Americans of all persuasions about the president’s acuity and competence. Furthermore, the frustrated president has shamelessly smeared his opponents as “menaces to democracy.” He would do better to lead an exhausted and fractured nation with wisdom, prudence, and a realistic grasp of elementary congressional arithmetic. Continuing to coerce “Build Back Better” and so-called voting rights bills is futile. And if he continues to insult Republicans and moderate Democrats, how can he ever achieve anything? Therefore, having squandered his political capital, the president must genuinely pivot to pragmatic measures that address America’s challenges, including the pandemic, inflation, supply chain, energy independence, crime, and the border crisis.
DIVISIVE RHETORIC
With unpresidential and imprudent remarks implying that all Republicans resemble George Wallace, Bull Conner and “Jim Crow” (all actually Democrats and former Democrat policies), the president may have appealed to progressives but may also have inadvertently united the rest of the country against him. Meanwhile, as President Biden tried to manipulate the voting rights (or, rules) initiative by insulting his opponents, he undermined his credibility to manage far more vital national interests. Furthermore, his exaggerated and divisive rhetoric made him appear irrelevant and incapable of understanding how most Americans view their history or why outraged Virginia parents elected a Republican governor. Therefore, he has come across as out of touch with serious issues facing the nation. Invoking the stain of slavery and the Civil War to demonize anyone who disagrees with him as bigots and traitors is ludicrous. Consequently, the president fatally expanded and galvanized his opposition.
ELECTION INTEGRITY
Unfortunately, President Biden has also joined two polarizing notables in subverting confidence in the American electoral process. Following the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton and her allies believed the election of Donald Trump was illegitimate. Their fear and bitterness led to the now discredited Russiagate obsession and impeachment. Likewise, following the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his followers believed that the election of Joseph Biden was rigged. Their misguided anger led to the atrocious events of January 6, 2021. But now President Biden has suggested that the 2022 mid-term elections may not be legitimate without ramming through the partisan, unwarranted, misrepresented, and unconstitutional voting rights (or, more accurately, voting rules) bills to Federalize all elections. His curious excuse is Georgia, a state with robust black turnout, that he narrowly carried and also narrowly elected two Democrats to the U. S. Senate, giving the party a 50-50 tie and de-facto majority control.
COURSE ADJUSTMENT
Liberal media pundits may scoff, but if President Biden is really serious about reconciling America Adrift or avoiding a mid-term elections disaster, he will have to move to the middle. This won’t be popular among progressives, who continue to criminalize political disagreement. Meanwhile, if the Republicans take back the Senate in 2022, President Biden will ironically have the opportunity to do so. Furthermore, Americans thought they were choosing a balance of temperament and policy moderation over the disruptive President Trump in 2020. But they were deceived. The Biden Administration and Democratic Party have strongly rejected balance in favor of the progressive agenda. Consequently, their priorities and policies set America Adrift. The president has lost public confidence by overpromising and underdelivering. Moreover, uncompromising lockdowns, warranted or not, continue to inhibit commerce and education. Therefore, Democrats are likely to face profound consequences in the 2022 mid-term elections.
UKRAINE AND BEYOND
President Biden is going to need all the help and support he can gather. He might remember that a bipartisan America established an enlightened world order following World War II. Or that President Lyndon Johnson needed the firm support of Sen. Everett Dirksen and the Republican caucus to pass America’s landmark civil rights legislation. But as President Biden’s efforts to strongarm “Build Back Better” and voting rights (rules) have stalled, Vladimir Putin is poised to invade Ukraine, violently seize Kyiv, and install a pro-Russian puppet government. The stakes are high for President Biden and America. In conclusion, Americans wait to see if President Biden will return to mainstream waters. Can he navigate back to the broad middle channel of economic, social, and national security policy, or will he continue to maroon an America Adrift?
Dennis M. Spragg is the author of America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism and Glenn Miller Declassified.
Among previous related articles are American Renewal, the Biden Doctrine, NATO and the Marshall Plan and the follow-up Cold War II.