Moderate Disillusionment with Biden

February 15, 2022

After the January 6th attempted insurrection (yes Republicans, it was an attempted coup by hard-line Trump supporters), I vowed I would never vote for Trump or one of his lackeys. I personally blame him for those events and the attack on democracy as a whole. I publicly said I’d rather see Republicans humiliated over the next four years by having far-left politicians wielding power. A year later, I now am living through “be careful what you wish for.”

President Biden has so bungled his presidency that I am compelled to write this piece. Here are four areas where I sharply diverge from him:

Build Back Better plan

It amuses me that Democrats think their incredibly poor showing in November 2021 was due to their inability to pass major, societal shift type legislation. The Democratic Party has proven itself to be out-of-touch with the average American, especially the minorities they claim to champion (most democratic leaders are older, white males, kind of ironic don’t you think?).

Biden has been so pulled towards the extreme, progressive left that he’s alienated the same moderates and disillusioned Republicans that won him the presidency. The President doesn’t understand that the majority of Americans clearly don’t want an expanded social welfare state, as we believe it produces an inefficient society that becomes increasingly beholden to various “entitled” groups. The President has neglected to address the issues that affect everyday Americans, from school shutdowns, to inflation, to immigration, etc. By catering to one minority extreme, he has pushed away the majority of voters, which will make life miserable for him in his last three years.

Voting rights

I’m guessing that Biden and his team calculated the potential blowback risk of the speech he made in Georgia about voting rights, and thought it was worth the risk.

Well, it wasn’t. It seemed his whole purpose was to offend the other side into being guilt-ridden into voting for sweeping voting law changes. When in history has a strategy like that worked? Ironically, he sounded more like Donald Trump than anyone else. His combative rhetoric only achieved new lows for his administration. Even liberal Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill) responded by saying that President Joe Biden may have gone "a little too far in his rhetoric" when he compared Senators who do not support changing the Senate filibuster rules to segregationists.

He compared the Republican efforts to bolster the security and integrity of future elections to the Jim Crow laws of the late 19th and early 20th century. First, this is an affront to all the men and women who bravely fought against such horrible, systemic racism and discrimination. Second, it was incredibly divisive. He “invoked the bloody disunion of the Civil War to demonize Americans who disagree with him” (Sen. McConnell, R-TN). For a President that had the simple mandate to unite America, this is damning. Third, by demonizing Americans who don’t agree with him, Biden made the best advertisement for why the filibuster is in place – to check the power of an angry individual or over-zealous majority.

Breaking the filibuster

A common criticism of the Constitution and other older legal documents/rules is that they’re outdated and aren’t relevant anymore. While that perhaps is a legitimate argument in specific, rare cases, the Senate rules in particular have withstood the test of time and have been a solid foundation in both building this country and protecting minority groups from an impassioned majority. Further, the Constitution gives each legislative house the right to determine its own rules. Our forefathers were not ignorant of history when writing the document and subsequent Bill of Rights – they understood what’s worked in legislative history and what hasn’t. Even in those trying times, they stressed unity and practical functioning of both houses of Congress, thus ensuring that future generations of Americans would be forced to work together for the common good of the country.

The Senate filibuster is a great example. From the earliest days of our republic, the Founding Fathers recognized the need and value for super-majority requirements in the United States Senate. In the Federalist Papers No. 22, Alexander Hamilton expounded on that need eloquently. What I don’t understand is why Biden thinks it’s a good idea to eliminate the Senate’s 60 vote procedural requirement in favor of a simple majority. This would the eliminate the need for one party to negotiate with the other, much less even talk to them. This would entrench the tribal culture that already exists between the parties, and exacerbate the already high tensions between the two. The short-term gains recognized by the party in power would lead to long-term erosion and ever escalating tensions.

If the filibuster is broken, then “policy will inextricably be pushed from the middle towards the extremes” (Sen. Simena, D-AZ). Every two years, it is likely the laws enacted by the previous party will be reversed, and the new party will come up with their own extreme laws, jerking the country violently back and forth, providing no stability and shaking the confidence of our allies.

Foreign Policy

I don’t believe that American power is waning, it’s more that China’s and Russia’s are growing, and the US is becoming more and more isolated. Europe is a shell of its former self, as they prefer their government handouts and frequent multi-party instability to any kind of challenge or growth. This has emboldened President Putin recently, and he threatens to continue to take advantage of the perceived weakness of the West, especially Germany. By agreeing to negotiate with him, Biden has lost too much leverage in the ability to check Russian ambition. What Biden should do is cut this threat off immediately – include Ukraine in NATO, as well as including other Eastern European nations that are being bullied into submission by their “big brother Russia.” This would force Europe to wake up, and send a message to Putin that America and the Western Alliance are not to be messed with.

The same holds true for Taiwan. I’m at least happy Biden has shifted much of America’s might towards the far east. It helps that both Russia and China have done their best to frighten and alienate their neighbors, forcing them towards friendlier relations with the United States. By being prepared for war, America keeps the peace.

Conclusion

President Biden is following the Trump playbook of pitting both sides against each other. From what I observe, the country has become even more divided, rather than united. For a president who ran his campaign on uniting the country, he has succeeded in doing the opposite. I don’t wish to break my vow and do the unthinkable: voting for Donald Trump again or for one of his acolytes, but the Democrats and our President are proving this vow hard to keep.