PUBLISHED: March 17, 2024 | www.baltimoresun.com
Joe Biden’s presidency has no theme. He has been less a leader and more a human weathervane, who shifts daily with the political winds. Everything is driven by ulterior political motives to court popularity and to win reelection — even setting aside a seat on the United States Supreme Court for a Black woman, insinuating the appointment was not based on merit.
But Mr. Biden exhibits admirable redeeming features. His entire life has been devoted to public service. His personal and family hardships have been overwhelming. He eschews the narcissism and pomposity that earmark political figures. He resisted exploiting the Super Bowl to advance his reelection chances. He has not, however, avoided the ravages of time. At age 81, Mr. Biden is at risk of aging 10 years in practical terms for each year he lives.
Mr. Biden’s constitutional insincerity is pronounced. As senator, he vowed to champion the impeachment of President George W. Bush if Bush attacked Iran without a congressional declaration of war, as required by Article I, section 8, clause 11. But as president, Mr. Biden has claimed the power to initiate attacks on his say-so alone, whether against China, Iran, the Houthis or otherwise. To borrow from Shakespeare, upon what meat doth this our President feed that he is grown so great?
President Biden’ habitual market interventions are ill-conceived, for example, the billions expended to promote semiconductor chip production. He has forgotten Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” which was gospel to the founding fathers:
“What is the species of domestic industry which his capital can employ, and of which the produce is likely to be of the greatest value, every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him. The statesman, who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”
President Biden’s economic follies can be understood. He is a professional politician who has never met a payroll and is clueless about free market incentives. He cannot make the waves go back.
Biden is at least semi-senescent. He looks mummified. He is 81 years old and anemic. Special Counsel Robert K. Hur recently remarked on Biden’s serial memory lapses. His grip on reality appears to lessen by the day.
Biden on immigration has been a fiasco. It has even led to the impeachment of the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Illegal immigration has spiked to alarming levels. Illegal immigrant children are commonly employed in violation of child labor laws, giving unscrupulous employers a competitive advantage. Further, they are educated at public expense under the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plyler v. Doe (1982). A porous border invites terrorists like members of Hezbollah to infiltrate and perpetrate a bloody sequel to 9/11. President Biden is rolling the dice with our lives.
States have a right to fight back in self-defense. At least half the states support Texas’ endeavor to police the border without regard to the U.S. Border Patrol. A second civil war may be approaching.
Over $75 billion has been contributed by Biden to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia with no light at the end of the tunnel. Mr. Biden is clueless about what “victory” should look like. His ulterior motive is to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin. But what then? There are no George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, James Madisons or John Adamses in Russia. There never has been. There never will be. True or false: Russians believe they need a dictator to avoid incessant intramural strife or conflict. Biden is making the American people pay for his fool’s errand in Ukraine. Its fate is irrelevant to the national security of the United States. If it was otherwise, President Biden would have asked Congress for a declaration of war against Russia.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a wild card. He could attract voters from Biden to hand victory to Trump.
The United States’ ill-executed withdrawal from Afghanistan after squandering more than $300 million every day for 20 successive years of failure enabled Taliban’s return to power and capture of American weapons. But no one has paid a political price for this stupendous, criminal blunder that returned a second edition of the Taliban grislier than the first.
What about Hunter Biden, including the infamous laptop, which 51 former intelligence officials falsely and recklessly disparaged as “Russian disinformation?” Add to that the tax fraud and firearm charges and notorious influence peddling. Americans are asking, “are we seeing a dual system of justice at work?”
Biden’s running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is more a liability than an asset. She has no accomplishments worth mentioning. As Democrat Walter Mondale said of Gary Hart, “Where’s the beef?”
President Biden is spending the nation into ruination. The national debt has soared past $34 trillion, to be saddled on the backs of our posterity. Annual budget deficits exceed $1 trillion as far as the eye can see. The federal government is crowding out private borrowing. Interest rates are climbing — especially for home mortgages.
President Biden should remember that elections are about the future, not the past, and the future looks bleak by any military, economic, medical, educational or social yardstick.
Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun. This column is part of a weekly series written from “The Owner’s Box.”