The Biden Promises–Rhetoric, Faded Idealism, Image, And Political Posturing

Bill Clinton fancied himself as the first Black president and vowed to appoint a Cabinet that ‘looks like America’.  He vowed to be even more Black than LBJ who stared down the segregationists of the South, championed Martin Luther King, and passed the historic Civil Rights Bill of 1964.  Clinton was a poseur - a Black wannabee and a white trailer trash love. 

As much as he limned the praises of African Americans, glad-handed and schmoozed with the best of them, and appointed them when and wherever he could, he was no slave to the race-gender-ethnicity agenda.  His best friend and golfing partner was Vernon Jordan, a wealthy, influential black lawyer, businessman, and investor.  This was no token Black man, but one whose K Street and Capitol Hill credentials were impeccable. When Jordan walked into an office, he was only a tall,  impeccably-tailored, imposing man.  Respect was paid before the door was closed. 

Clinton’s one Black Cabinet appointee, Mike Espy, however, was a mistake and Clinton knew it.  Dogged by accusations of financial chicanery throughout his tenure and in court for much of the time, acquittal on most counts did little to burnish the image of a manipulative operative.  His other ‘diverse’ cabinet members, women and a Latino were professional choices and advised Clinton well.  With the exception of Espy, Clinton fulfilled his promise to appoint a diverse advisory retinue but insisted on high professional standards and ethical integrity.  The message was not that it was important ipso facto to recruit minorities, but that there were talented, highly professional minority men and women who deserved appointment.  The difference was essential.

George Bush adhered to these principles and standards; and his no-nonsense, no ‘diversity’, no ‘looking like America’ rhetoric, he simply chose the best of the best; and because there were Black candidates who fit that category, he appointed them.  The most notable was Colin Powel, a respected, high ranking military officer and man of integrity and honor.  Bush’s friend Condoleezza Rice had impeccable academic and professional credentials and she served him faithfully and well.

Enter Biden who has been co-opted by the progressive race-gender-ethnicity claques of his party who have demanded representation of all breeds.  The progressive race-gender-ethnicity tent is a very big one indeed, and one look at the ‘gender spectrum’ alone displays its variety.  Facebook alone has 58 gender options from which one can pick as part of member profiles (Cis Female, Cis Woman, Cis Man, Androgyne, Transgender Person, and Two Spirit among them).  Biden, before selecting one of many, sat with a gender-diverse group to hear their options and recommendations.  The President’s appointment of Rachel Levine, a transgender female (male-to-female) was a perfect choice.  Dr. Levine, as feminine as he/she might consider herself, is to the casual observer a man in drag.  This was the point.  Gender radicals refused feminine-looking choices – transformed men who looked like attractive, sexy women.  That would defeat the purpose, for most Americans would quickly forget the transgender side of him/her and see only the beautiful woman.  There is no mistaking Dr. Levine’s male origins.  In fact, it is hard to ignore them.

Once alternative gender was put aside – and no one except the Biden coterie thought that the shallowly professional with a sketchy state public health career was the best candidate -  the rest was easy.  Plenty of good women out there, said Biden; and if George could find a Colin Powell, so can I! Time will tell whether or not the Biden appointees are worth their salt; but the damage has been done.  By publicly and shamelessly putting label over ability, he has done a disservice to everyone.  Affirmative action failed because it consigned black students to ostracism no matter how well they did.  They got in, observed the student body, because they were Black.  They were kept in because they were Black, and they were championed because they were Black.  Their degrees were automatically and permanently devalued because of affirmative action.  Those Black students who, regardless of government support, were indeed talented and worthy of admission, were quickly and easily accepted by their white counterparts, but there was no changing the date and the circumstances of their admittance, a taint which would follow them forever.

In a flurry of Executive Orders Biden has reversed many if not most of Donald Trump’s policies; but in so doing once again put image and political posturing over reasonable response.  Donald Trump, it must remembered, was not only considered by the Left to be a bad, corrupt politician; he was the Devil incarnate – an evil, destructive, dangerous, and Satanic man.  Since he had been malignant in his misogynistic, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic ideas, they could be dismissed and jettisoned without question.  Anything would be better than a Trump policy.

So, because Trump had been accused of child abuse, inhumane incarceration, brutal repression, and jackbooted brutality in his harsh, punitive stance against illegal immigration, then all illegal immigrants already in the country should be granted amnesty; and the borders opened to all comers.  Fanciful idealism and wrongheaded policy of course.  If everyone who wanted to come to America were granted entry, we would double in population overnight.  Everyone wants to come here, and Trump at least recognized the seriousness of the issue.  Trump’s every action, as harsh as it might have seemed, sent an unequivocal message – if you are undocumented, you are not welcome.  Biden’s response does exactly the opposite and encourages anyone with gumption and a good coyote to head to El Norte.  Image, rhetoric, political posturing, and fancy once again trumps substance.

Trump’s ban on visas for Muslim countries was too inclusive.  There was no reason, for example, why Turkey or the Comoros should be automatically excluded; but the message was clear – Islam breeds radical Islam, and Islamic radicalization is a problem and a threat to the United States.   Suffering indignity is the price to pay for refusing to challenge radical anarchic religious extremism.  Biden’s reversal neuters that important message in the name of ‘unity’ and cultural diversity.  Any restrictions on Muslim majority countries is an insult to Islam, and America can never tolerate such prejudice  As a result, of course, Islamic radicals will be encouraged to find a way in to the United States now that the doors have been opened wide.

Re-entering the Paris Climate Accord is another example of feel-good idealism.  Of course protecting the climate is a nice idea, and what reasonable person could possibly object?  Yet the Paris accord is another fanciful international treaty with no teeth and no consideration of balance sheet, risk assessment, and cost-benefit analysis.  One size fits all, advocates say, but countries cannot so easily be shoe-horned into snazzy Italian loafers.

Re-entering the WHO, the oldest, most entrenched, most calcified bureaucracy of the already discredited United Nations is another example of One World idealism.  National organizations like the CDC and the various professional medical associations in America are enough.

Cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline, an important conduit for Canadian energy resources to American Gulf refineries, has been roundly criticized by Canadian and American economists.  The loss of over 10,000 jobs alone should give pause, not to mention the importance of energy self sufficiency; but Biden’s environmental credentials ride on absolute, reflexive ‘global warming’, climate change actions.  And these are but a few of the seventeen Executive Orders signed by Biden on his first day in office.  More tomfoolery is sure to follow.

The point of all of this is that Biden, despite his rhetoric about unity, science, and objectivity, has ignored all three in his first 24 hours in the Oval Office.  He has shown himself to be exactly what conservatives have expected him to be – in the grasp of the progressive wing of his party, beholden to their absolutism and ideological mentality.  Unity means considering the conservative agenda, separating it from Trump’s circus show, and giving it the respect and attention it requires.  Biden shows no sign of this whatsoever.