Jimmy Carter the second

Crises are a constant in the world, but rarely are there so many all at once in 2022.  We still have the COVID-19 pandemic, a global economy disaster looming if not already here, the war or wars, and potentially more wars on the horizon.  The worse of it: there doesn’t seem to be any solution, let alone end, to any of these crises.  The principal reason is that in previous crises, e.g., 2008, the whole world was at least ostensibly united to solve the problem.  But right now the world is fractured.  It started with Trump, and has got worse by Biden.

There have been talks of Biden being the second Carter since the end of 2021.  Which is unfair to Carter, as Biden’s incompetence is at a much higher level.  Biden was elected as being non-Trump, who was likewise incompetent.  Trump was incompetent because he was ignorant, and because of that, only the worst sycophants were willing to serve him, and because of that, Trump instigated terrible acts.  Biden was supposed to be different, and only if he turned away from Trump just enough, he would have been a success.  But the reality is that Biden speaks a different tone, but behaves the same way.  The whole world is a mess because of it.    

On the domestic front, Biden sounds the most different from Trump and the GOP, but what has he done?  He can blame the Senate rules all he wants, but Biden has almost nothing to show for and essentially stopped pushing since the summer of 2021.  The Supreme Court, immigration, guns (the latest law is cosmetic), economy, COVID-19, the stock market, it is hard to point to a positive by Biden, or if he is even trying to do anything now. 

But the international stage is where Biden truly excels as being absolutely dismal and practically the same as Trump, if not worse.  Biden is unable or unwilling to have a clean break from Trump, despite campaigning implicitly to reverse Trump’s policies.  What did he reverse after 18 months?  China, Iran, Cuba, and other countries like South Americans?  Nothing: Biden has inherited Trump’s lies and legacy and fully adopted as his own; as a result, he has kept Trump’s brush fires burning and may even turn them into forest fires.  

The Russian-Ukraine war is the most illuminating example.  In a break from Obama, Trump sent offensive weapons to Ukraine, which has been the major party violating the Minsk Agreements.  Biden continued to arm Ukraine prior to Feb 2022, encouraging Ukrainian push to the Russian minority in the East and joining NATO.  Once Putin attacked in Feb 2022, Biden appears to be the one most excited.  All the policies ensued provide a boon for the arms industry, but hardship for everybody else: inflation is running higher and higher in the US, shortage has no end in sight, and people are dying and suffering in Europe.   

Biden’s recent $40 billion arms deal to Ukraine received unanimous support by the Dem in Congress, but a few dozen GOP opposed it.  But don't mistake those dissenting GOP votes as pro-peace since the majority of GOP still went for the bill.   A GOP president similarly would have had a few Dem opposing but almost all GOP supporting.  History has shown this pattern time and time again: there is only one party in the US, i.e., the War Party.  Poor people can’t pay the bills with lost jobs or over 8% inflation, but rich people have the spare money to survive and may even get richer, as seen during countless wars and COVID-19.  Poor people or people overseas die, but since when have we the rich cared?  Biden being a career politician is made of the same cloth, so of course he can’t escape the system and its stale mentality.  Thinking Biden would be bold or a changed man is always naive and has now been proven so.   

The convention wisdom is that Dem will lose big in the 2022 mid-term and 2024.  The most recent SC decisions on guns and abortion have Dem hoping that voters angry with those decisions will stem the tide in Dem’s favor.  This is another wishful thinking.  The majority of Americans always support abortion rights as well as gun controls, even in most red states.  But due to how people vote and not vote and how the local and federal election systems are set up in the US, it has never stopped red states overwhelmingly sending the GOP to the Congress and state legislatures.  Why is it any different this time?