Oops! - Biden’s Bumbling And America's Policy Chaos

It isn’t so much that Biden’s policies have come unexpectedly – the pullout from Afghanistan had been foreseen years ago, and progressives had been demanding a more humane and inclusive border policy from the very beginning of his administration – it’s that even the most casual observer could have seen the folly of these policies and the certainty of their failure.

The policy to open the southern border to all comers resulted from three foundational progressive principles – a defiant commitment to undo anything and everything that Donald Trump had put in place; an assumption that all people of color, discriminated-against ethnicities, and people living in poverty caused by the corruption of capitalism are ipso facto worthy of entrance to the United States; and  an a priori judgement that diversity alone is a legitimate reason for open immigration. The sooner the white majority becomes a minority, the better. 

However, no sooner were these principles applied, then their errancy made clear.  Hordes of illegal immigrants stormed the border on the assumption that they would be let in on even the most tenuous grounds.  They claimed that they were political refugees, fleeing the sequelae and consequences of civil war, although all Central American armed conflicts were long past.  They claimed that they were fleeing oppression, but such heavy-handed governance was par for the course in regional Banana Republics. 

They claimed that poverty itself was the worst oppressor; but they, unlike their poor counterparts in Asia and post-Soviet Europe did little to promote and enable economic reforms.  The coyotes and handlers of Central American immigrants shamelessly played on the heartstrings of liberal sentiment in the United States and insisted that migrants' children, those who suffered most from autocracy, capitalism, and elitist greed, should be given entry priority.  They, said the coyotes, were the most vulnerable, the most innocent, and the most deserving.  They, cannily and callously knew that these border-crossing innocents, once admitted in the United States, would, as anchor children, provide legitimacy to their parents’ claim for admission.

No one, except the politically blind, could fail to see the transparency of these motives, and that the Administration’s policy – emotional, ill-defined, and moth-eaten – would not only permit but encourage tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to the United States.  Those many in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua who had waited years for this opportunity and who had been decisively thwarted by Donald Trump, now packed their bags and headed to El Norte. There was nothing to lose, and much to gain.

No observer in the United States was surprised at the resulting chaos at the border - holding pens and tent cities, helter-skelter dispersal of immigrants inland, easy entry of criminals, gang members, gun runners, and drug cartel operatives, and the howls of ‘foul’ by local law enforcement, citizens groups, and political leaders.

The  disaster of the Biden policy to ‘end the war’ in Afghanistan and ‘bring the troops home’ was also a surprise to no one except the usual shills, claques, and political lackeys.  Anyone else paying the least attention could see that the years of American presence in the country did nothing to eliminate the Taliban, had encouraged a series of corrupt puppet regimes hated by the conservative, religious populace, and had effected only cosmetic social changes while the ruling party secretly colluded with the Taliban, salted away millions in ‘aid’ money, and never had any intention of real structural reform.

Not only that, historical myopia was at work. Afghans had never been ruled by any foreign power since Genghis Khan – not the Ottomans, Indians, Persians, British, or Soviets. The Taliban were patient, savvy, determined, and religiously motivated.  They wanted control of the country far more than the American-indentured regimes or America itself, and they were willing to wait patiently for the right moment.  The ease of their complete control of the country and assumption of power showed how ready, well-prepared, provisioned, and organized they were.  They had been planning this move for two decades. 

Despite the self-serving attempts at justifying the American withdrawal and explaining away the chaos at the airport as civil dislocations ‘inevitable’ in any radical political change, there was no fooling the American public.  Even the media claques and shills who had enshrined the new President before he even took office and given him the honeymoon of all presidential honeymoons, were critical. 

Every ham-handed justification for such an unconscionable retreat and dereliction of the very moral authority Biden hoped to re-establish was met with smirks and back-room laughter.  The more the Administration talked, defended, and evaded, the deeper they dug the hole; and by the end of the week the White House was in political shambles.

Politics are like life on the African veldt, subject only to the law of tooth and claw, kill or be killed, and most of all, even the most liberal commentators are increasingly critical of an Oops, Sorry policy agenda, and given the particular nature of political momentum are expanding their attacks and finding fault with the absurdities of the cancel culture, the 1619 Project, and Critical Race Theory.  

Thanks to their energized critical and objective appraisal of Biden era policies, more and more of the politically hesitant are speaking out against more than just The Border and Afghanistan, and have taken on MeToo abrogation of civil rights, kangaroo courts, suspension of due process, and the entire woke political agenda.  

Gender spectrum and transgender priorities? Nonsense, a pure and simple refutation of biological determinism and the assertion of common sense.  Inclusivity and diversity? Identity politics at their worse, championing individuals on the basis of race, gender, or ethnicity only.  

The conservative bandwagon has started to roll.  No longer will muddled, 'Oops, I’m sorry' leadership be given a free pass.

It’s about time, of course, and Biden, caught now in the first storm surge of the hurricane season which he never expected, is flummoxed.   Half the electorate voted for Donald Trump and endorsed his conservative agenda; and having been shamed, laughed at, dismissed, and declared irrelevant by the progressive Left, are now feeling renewed traction.  It is time for all this sanctimony and presumptuous, arrogant righteousness to end, they say; and Biden, propped up by the Squad and his liberal lackeys, can only nod and agree.

Meanwhile to anyone else Biden and his White House assemblage look and act befuddled, in-over-their-heads, and hopelessly overmatched.  A Cabinet chosen on the premise that race, gender, and ethnicity will always win the day, provide native inspiration to even the most ill-prepared, and will guide every executive decision as perfectly as if the Holy Ghost himself were in the room, will obviously bumble and shuffle.  Once again, even the most casual observer could see this coming.

The Great Rollback has started barely six months into the Biden presidency.  He has done nothing right – failure on the southern border, chaos in Afghanistan, absurdly inflationary and misguided give-away-the-store multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill, knee-jerk support to Black Lives Matter hype and neglect of the systemic problems of the inner cities, kneeling obeisance to historical revisionism, arrogant dismissal of religious sentiment and Christian heritage….The list goes on,

Conservatives and moderate Democrats knew that Biden would have his comeuppance, but no one expected it so soon; but there is cheering in the bleachers nonetheless.  Uncle Joe, the deer in the headlights president, will soon be history.