Hard Times for Biden
– By Ed Kociela –
Without question, these are hard times for President Joe Biden and his administration.
They have been scalded for a rather rocky retreat from Afghanistan and the numbers for COVID-19 have been disappointing in the spread of disease and drop in vaccinations. Add to it the wildly inaccurate criticism regarding his acuity by elements of a radical right that has no conscience or understanding and the associated troubles of trying to guide the nation through troubled economic waters roiled by a failed administration that placed its priorities on the needs of the wealthy and you have a hell of a mess, none of which is his doing.
The fact is no matter who was in office when it came time to vacate Afghanistan, the result would have been the same – a rough and violent exodus. You don’t just pack up and go quietly into the night after 20 years of combat. It just doesn’t work that way and the conservatives damn well know it. Still, they throw daggers his way with little to no provocation.
The pace of COVID-19 vaccinations is in a downward spiral because most of those who believe in science have already received their shots while those who are fueled by politics rather than common sense are girding their loins for a continued fight because they don’t like being ordered around by the government. The thing is, politics is politics and science is science and one should never influence the other. You can dislike Biden’s politics all you want, but that should not influence your decision about getting the vaccination. Many liberals are not terribly happy with the government, either, but that didn’t cloud their judgment when it came to protecting themselves and others. Of course, some of the most bitter anti-government types are so filled with bile and fetid ignorance that they are willing to expose themselves to the virus rather than do the right thing. Their hatred for anything and anybody even remotely liberal or just a tick past the hard-right point of view is so laced with hate, anger, and racism that they are willing to go to the ultimate extremes – as evidenced by the Jan. 6 insurgence and their continued desire to commit violent acts against Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and, well, Democrats in general. You want to take up arms against the president, vice president, speaker, or anybody else? Say it in my presence and I will be more than happy to drop a dime on you to the Secret Service and FBI. You belong in prison. As much as I disdained the former president I never wished him or his bunch of goons physical violence and firmly chastised my fellow liberals who would. You are not a patriot, you are not a defender of the Constitution. If you wish to take up arms against the government I will personally guarantee that when the military is through with you your buddies will be scraping up your remains from the street.
This isn’t an apologist screed or highly partisan stance. As a point of disclosure, Biden was not my top choice among the Democrats who threw their hats in the race, but he was certainly my overwhelming pick over the former president, who during the solemnity of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks chose to pimp a boxing match and declare that he would like to step into the ring against Biden, promising he would flatten him in seconds, while the rest of the nation mourned on the solemn occasion. A classless act, to be sure, but the leader of this self-described wild bunch of rebels.
The war in Afghanistan should have ended during George W. Bush’s tenure, should have certainly been ended during the Barack Obama administration, and was promised closure by the last administration. All three failed miserably at the task, none actually coming close to ending the war as Isis and Al Qaeda pressed the issue. Shutting down the war was imperative, but predictably messy for whoever finally pulled the plug.
Of course, we will never know, but regarding COVID-19, I would like to think that had the previous administration prevailed in the election that the mandates about masks and vaccines would have been put in place without protest from the liberal crowd, that Democrats would not have marshaled forces to march on the Capitol and threaten the lives of the vice president, speaker, and the other members of Congress whose lives were placed in jeopardy that January day when homegrown terrorists launched their assault.
There is, without question, a degree of supposition here but historically, liberals don’t draw down on people who oppose them. They might take to the streets, carry signs, and make a lot of noise, but they won’t throw a noose over a frame to hang the vice president and speaker.
Those are the kind of forces that are opposing Biden right now so you can see why the president is in a no-win situation that threatens his Congressional and public support. The clumsy exit from Afghanistan exacerbated it, but to be honest, even had the United States and its allies won this war, it would have still been an ugly end that pretty much seemed to parallel our leaving Vietnam as Isis and the others wrestling for control of Afghanistan, lay in wait, looking for a moment of advantage. It just so happens that the buck stopped on Biden’s desk because he was left to clean up the mess.
You don’t like Biden’s foreign policy? Fine, nail him on that.
You don’t like Biden’s social policy? Fine, nail him on that.
You don’t like Biden’s economic policy? Fine, nail him on that.
Those are legitimate beefs, legitimate differences of opinion, of political importance, of perspective.
But, the pile of complaints stacking up at his door are the result of prior mistakes and errors in judgment he inherited.
Blame him for his mistakes, not the mistakes of others.
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