What an incredible first year President Joe Biden is having.
He is the first president to have squandered all of the goodwill that he potentially represented and campaigned on from a bunker. He sold himself as a moderate who would heal our divided country and he sold a majority of American voters that his experience in the U. S. Senate and as vice president would enable him to make things happen.
Instead, the unfortunate reality is that he is consistently governing according to the wishes of the fringe Far Left of the Democratic Party, the socialist wing, which has become the predominant voice of the party, but one which is clearly out of sync with a majority of Americans.
Though it is not cast in stone, presidents typically become lame ducks if they get elected to a second term and then, generally, within the last year or so of their time in office.
Based on this standard, Biden has broken all of the records.
Biden in his first year has had three major legislative initiatives: the infrastructure package, the “Build Back Better” (BBB) bill and the “Freedom to Vote” bill. Graciously one could say that Biden is 1 – 2 on these legislative bills but most objective political observers would say he is 0 – 3.
For example, the infrastructure bill was primarily fashioned by Congress and only supported by the president reluctantly because he had already cast his lot with the over-the-top Pelosi/Schumer/Bernie/AOC proposal for trillions of dollars more than was finally adopted. What became an unseemly conundrum was Pelosi’s deal that the infrastructure bill would be part of a two-part deal involving the passage of both that bill and BBB. But that deal crumbled when the Democratic caucuses in both chambers couldn’t agree on the parameters of BBB.
BBB is a classic example of not listening to all members of the 50-vote Democratic Senate caucus. That is astonishing in itself, given the narrow margin for victory implicit in an evenly-divided chamber in which the vice president must cast a vote if all Democrats can agree in order to win.
First, the sycophants of the Far Left have never really understood – and still don’t - that a 50-vote Senate dramatically changes the dynamics in the upper chamber, and that compromise is necessary to get the divergent views of the Democrats on the same page. Their actions suggest that intimidation and bullying of senators who don’t see the world as they do in their warped minds can be pressured to go along. This is despite the fact that these same Far Left socialist Democrats aren’t willing to change their minds either!
To their ultimate surprise, they learned that there are at least two members of the caucus–U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-WV, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz– standing against them. Despite all of the inappropriate efforts notwithstanding, these two senators harbor deeply-felt principles and respect for the rules of the Senate that supersede the political whims of the other caucus members who are more interested in expediency. Damn the means, all that counts to the Far Left is the end result.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, failed to share with his caucus the written concerns that Manchin expressed early on. That was the initial failure and Schumer keeping Manchin’s concerns a secret for so long was a second screw-up. The other caucus members refused to believe that Manchin was serious about sticking to his principles and this was their most egregious underestimation of the man.
For Biden, who served almost four decades in the most prestigious elected body in the world, and then eight years overseeing it as vice president, his inability to bring Manchin to his way of thinking, is an indictment of his ability to understand where senators are coming from and how best to gain their support. President Lyndon Johnson was a master negotiator in convincing senators and representatives to come around to his way of thinking, but obviously, Biden lacks this essential skill and is tone-deaf.
BBB was extremely bloated and was a bill littered with “pork” for every possible extremist special interest group including unions and the environmentalists among others, groups to whom the Far Left is beholden, regardless of whether it is best for our country.
Manchin, whose primary concern going back to last summer was the risk of ever-increasing inflation, has over a noticeably brief period of time been proven prophetic. In fact, in poll after poll, the number one worry for average Americans who are trying desperately to make ends meet is inflation. The lack of empathy and the initial denial from Biden that inflation was a problem has only solidified most Americans’ opinions that this administration just doesn’t get it.
One only needs to mention the right direction-wrong track numbers to further demonstrate that this administration is out of touch with the reality that our country is experiencing. The Biden administration doesn’t seem to comprehend or appreciate this.
Finally, the Freedom to Vote Bill, supported energetically by Biden late in the process and then only days before a critical Senate vote – and demagogued by him as well – is nothing more than a public relations effort to allow the federal government to usurp the power constitutionally relegated to the states over voting laws. That U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., one of the most liberal senators in the country, has rightly condemned Biden’s recent speech in Georgia is another indication that this president is off the rails and has diminished influence within his own caucus.
The ludicrous idea that Sinema would also succumb to the same kind of pressures as was foisted upon Manchin, in light of her many public pronouncements that she would not support the weakening of the time-honored, filibuster rule, which has stood for 232 years, indicates that the Far-Left Dem Socialists are fanatics who refuse to give an inch. Congrats to her for standing by her principle
Biden’s approval numbers continue to plummet, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ numbers are even worse. If the president is unable to get his most important legislative initiatives passed now, with the almost unwavering support of the Mainstream Media, imagine what it will be like after the midterm elections when the president’s party traditionally loses, on average, 25 seats in the House and four in Senate. This puts Congress in Republican hands with Senate continuing to be closely divided. All of this portends even worse outcomes for anything Biden may want to tackle next.
Biden is truly a lame duck now. His political wounds are self-inflicted because he refuses to govern from the middle despite his promises to do so.
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