President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is no moderate. Some in the mainstream media continue to label him such.
But many Delawareans know better. Joe was never a moderate in the 36 years he represented us in the U.S. Senate. He was no moderate when he served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president — because Obama was no moderate.
As such, some Americans profess surprise when Biden sides more with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., than he does with those like Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz..; or even our own Democratic Sen. Tom Carper. To the extent that we know Carper’s views — he has wisely kept his mouth shut of late. Notice we haven’t mentioned either Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia or Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
President Biden’s governing philosophy is only important because he campaigned as something quite different. It seems pretty clear that many Americans who voted for him voted more against President Donald Trump than they voted for Joe Biden. In addition, they may have been wishing for a quieter presidency than Mr. Trump was providing or was likely to provide in a second term. They may also have been voting simply for “competence,” whatever that means.
Many Americans, we suspect, liked President Trump’s policies just fine. They just didn’t like Donald Trump the man very much. Or at all.
So here we are.
The first thing we learned Jan. 20 and the days thereafter was that the Biden administration would be, to a great degree, simply anti-Trump. If Trump was for the Keystone pipeline, for example, then the Biden administration would cancel it. And if the Trump administration had achieved energy independence for the United States for the first time in 40 years, as some claimed, then the Biden administration would cancel drilling rights on federal lands.
Or worse, if the Trump administration negotiated a “conditions-based” withdrawal agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan, then Biden would simply set an arbitrary deadline for getting U.S. forces out and then insist on it against advice to the contrary.
Afghanistan is just one example of the many Biden administration failures. Here is a partial list. There is not space enough to discuss all or even very many:
Taking No. 10 first simply for convenience, Joe Biden was added to the Obama presidential ticket in 2008 partially because of his perceived expertise in foreign affairs. He had been chairman or ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for quite a few years. He had traveled widely and knew a lot of foreign leaders.
So why was the submarine deal involving France so bungled? Good question. France is the United States’ original ally, saving our bacon during the Revolution. We have fought three wars with France as an ally. Why stab them in the back now? This, even though providing Australia with nuclear submarines is a better outcome than France’s diesel-powered subs.
This border crisis is completely self-inflicted, even to the extent of doubling down. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas averred the other week that the Biden administration does not believe in a border wall. This, though even some Democrats admit the border wall works in California. Meanwhile, reportedly more than 1 million migrants a year are flowing across the southwest border, including presumably terrorists, criminals and rapists. The Biden administration’s attitude seems to be “who cares?”
And then, of course, there are the lies about the border. “The border is closed,” Mayorkas famously said when it was obvious to anyone’s eyes that it certainly was not. Or there was Vice President Kamala Harris’ famous line, “Do not come,” when it is patently obvious to me that the Biden administration is inviting migrants to come.
And then, of course, there is No. 1. It seems that President Biden thought it would be a neat idea to have all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. He cited President Trump’s determination to end that 20-year war. Many Americans agreed that getting out of Afghanistan was a good idea.
The generals in charge of the Afghanistan situation took a lot of criticism for what happened back in August. No general of my acquaintance would have done it that way, given an alternative. However, President Biden gave them poor choices when he rejected advice to leave 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. So they testified under oath to Congress. Notably, the White House didn’t push back.
Now, President Biden had every legal and constitutional right to give the order he did, which was to be out by Aug. 31. And Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, were sworn to obey, which they did. The concept of civilian control of the military is hammered into every officer from second lieutenant to general. We believe it.
Leave it up to American voters to decide.
Which is the whole point here. It’s up to the American voters to decide whether the Biden administration and all its parts are governing the United States and leading the free world wisely and competently.
Reid K. Beveridge has covered politics in Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Delaware and Washington, D.C. He now resides in Milton.
