I voted for a third-party candidate in 2020, and did not vote in 2016. Regardless, I accepted the winners as my President. It doesn't appear that I have much company. I want my President to succeed. In that, I have more company than rational hope.
President Biden’s inaugural address was mediocre. He calls for unity, while doing little but promote division since the election. His bad-mouthing of Operation Warp Speed is harmful, not to Trump, but to the American people. So much distrust was spread for short-term political gain that we'll probably lose at least half a million people who refuse to take a "Trump Vaccine." He proudly announced that he will ensure 100M doses in 100 days – a rate that had already been exceeded under Trump.
Every state got the same number of doses per population, two models have succeeded. West Virginia put the National Guard in charge and, with perhaps the poorest transportation infrastructure in the country, the state leads the nation. South Dakota partitioned the state into thirds, and assigned them to the three dominant healthcare mega corps. They were given the vaccines, and told to go forth and shoot. In contrast, New York, New Jersey, California have destroyed vaccines, and there is political infighting slowing things down. I'm in Tennessee, we're fine. So is Texas. Maryland and Virginia are screwed. The breakdown in logistics is due to failure of Governors.
The national distribution plan was always supposed to leave the final in-state details to the states. Local needs are best understood locally; expecting the federal government to know details suitable to getting injections into individual arms is abdicating local responsibility. During Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco gave a detailed list of supplies needed to FEMA: “Give us everything.” Personally, I’d have loaded ships with thermal underwear and sled dogs. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin didn’t bother informing FEMA that the convention center was being used as a shelter, but blamed the federal agency for its failure to provide immediate support. Some states were paying attention; others failed their constituents.
According to Joe, everybody's a racist, his second executive order was to provide support to "underserved areas," whatever that means (I think it’s race-based favoritism, something I oppose on principle), everybody who has ever supported Trump is irredeemable and should be shut out of the public square, canceled, denied employment, denied the right to speak, sent to re-education camps. I've long said that when authoritarianism comes to the U.S. it will be swift and brutal. The only person who can bring the lynch mob to its senses is taking a nap.
Initial Executive Orders contradicted claimed priorities. Job creation was touted, but shutting down the XL Pipeline caused immediate firing of 1,000 union workers, with tens of thousands more to come in the U.S. and Canada. Doing so in the name of stopping global warming is disingenuous; most of the oil was destined for petrochemical use, including medicines, contact lenses, cosmetics, cleaning products, plastics, artificial rubber, paint and thousands of other products. We had finally reached energy independence, and it’s being thrown away. For a man who wants to improve relations with allies, pissing off our closest ally and largest trading partner, Canada, by cancelling the pipeline, isn’t a great start.
Most of the jobs paying minimum wage are in restaurants and bars, hard-hit by the pandemic and already in or in imminent danger of bankruptcy. Raising the minimum wage to $15/hour nationwide will destroy 3.7M jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Conversion to green energy will indeed create jobs – in China. That’s where much of the manufacturing is done for solar panels and wind turbines. Moving more jobs to China isn’t helping the American worker.
Biden ran on unifying the country, and reversed the ban on anti-racism training in government. His opposition to racism is belied by the fact that most of the training is based on Critical Race Theory, and involves accusing whites of being responsible for all ills afflicting people of color. That’s not going to unify anybody. Equality of the sexes is wonderful, but why destroy girls’ and women’s sports in the process? “Follow the science” should lead our President to understand that transgenderism will not change biology, which gives biological males significant advantages over biological females in most sports.
We will now also have a federal organization targeting racism, in particular the vast white supremacy threat. The descriptions of the threat are eerily similar to the descriptions in Sound Vision, an organization dedicated to helping Muslims, which seems to consist primarily of pointing out Western abuses of Islam. It notes that between 2000 and 2016 white supremacists were responsible for 49 homicides, a death rate not significantly different from death by bungee jumping The site is best summarized in its own words:
The total number of hate groups in the U.S. rose to 1,020 in 2018. That is seven percent more than 2017. White nationalist groups alone increased by almost 50 percent last year, growing from 100 chapters in 2017 to 148 in 2018. Although black nationalist groups make up a small percentage of hate groups, they are the minority. The great majority are those that despise racial, ethnic or religious minorities and they, unlike black nationalist groups, have a firm foothold in the mainstream.
The numbers are from the FBI. They cite 148 of 1,020 hate groups are white nationalists, less than 15%. The existence of black nationalist groups is acknowledged, but without offering evidence the site states they are few and do not have a firm foothold in the mainstream. Given the mass conformity of U.S. corporations proclaiming the virtue of Black Lives Matter, I find this claim underwhelming. But, in the name of unity we will single out a gargantuan threat of white supremacy, a threat not proven to exist.
Democratic Senators are discussing expelling Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley as traitors for objecting to certifying Pennsylvania's electoral votes. What about Barbara Boxer's objections to certifying Ohio's electoral votes in 2004? In fact, in 2017 thirty-one Democrats objected to certifying some or all of Trump's electoral votes. Democrats voted against certifying results in 2001, 2005 and 2017. Today, the House of Representatives is considering expelling members who supported Trump. This has all the characteristics of a lynch mob. You can abominate Trump, but to decide that half of America has no civil rights and should be permanently banned from civil society is deranged.
Everyone who ever supported Trump is a white supremacist, and all American institutions are racist. Biden needs to call out that lie and encourage his party to take yes for an answer. Democrats control the Executive Branch and both Houses of Congress. They have openly discussed packing the Supreme Court, have already opened the Southwest border to unlimited undocumented immigration and ordered all detained immigrants released immediately. This will increase the size of the electorate in a manner Democrats conclude will favor them. Adding two states, certain that this will add four more Democrat Senators, is a power-grabbing move.
When he was Majority Leader, Harry Reid overturned two centuries of practice and precedent to deny almost all power to the minority. The only remaining check on tyranny of the majority is the filibuster, which Majority Leader Schumer has promised to eliminate. How any of this contributes to unity is a mystery, unless unity is defined as forced conformity.
A snap impeachment was never warranted, but it will certainly not unify the country. Of significant note, Democrat Alcee Hastings of Florida voted to impeach Trump. Hastings was impeached and convicted of bribery while a federal judge, but welcomed back as a Congressman.
The derangement among governing institutions has been seen twice in the 20th Century, in Russia and Iran, following revolutions. A similar quashing of dissent took place in China, costing up to one hundred million dead to achieve "unity." We only have three-quarters of that number to execute. Piece of cake.