No wonder President Joe Biden has been hiding out at Camp David. Things have gone spectacularly wrong at an incredible rate of speed. No sooner had he addressed the American people about debacle of departing from Afghanistan than he flew back to the presidential hideaway in Maryland. So how did it all go wrong so quickly?
Joe Biden
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Upon taking office, Biden seemed guided by one ruling principle: to distinguish himself by undoing as quickly as possible everything his predecessor Donald Trump had established. To that end, Biden immediately reversed Trump’s border policies, which encouraged a tidal wave of unchecked illegal immigration over our southern border. Border Patrol has been overwhelmed as the numbers have swelled, and the “kids in cages” trope used to smear Trump during his administration came back with a vengeance as holding facilities were filled to capacity. Proving how feckless Biden’s border decision has been, a federal judge from Texas reversed the president’s order to terminate Trump’s decree and reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy.
By shutting down the Keystone pipeline almost immediately after his inauguration, Biden ended the hard-won energy independence Trump could boast constituted the first time we had achieved that enviable goal in our recent history. The stunning achievement of energy autonomy was reversed virtually overnight, putting thousands of people out of work. It was rash, unthinking, and unfeeling, and left many wondering if a particular animus toward MAGA country undergirded the decision. But Biden wasn’t done yet.
Basking in the afterglow of his unlikely Oval Office win, Biden continued to act as if he had also won a mandate. He and his economic advisers reversed the prosperity and financial gains made by Trump with reckless federal spending, setting in motion what appears to be an inflationary spiral unseen since the 1970s. As a result, prices for goods and services are spiking at the exact moment Americans can ill-afford the cost – as they struggle through the pandemic. Car, food, and gas prices are dizzyingly expensive, and the country is reeling in an effort to adjust to the new normal.
And now comes the tragic end of our 20-year adventurism in Afghanistan. The Taliban have finally achieved the goal of a lifetime – Kabul is captured — and it seems two decades of U.S. efforts were for naught. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was caught like a deer in headlights at the terrible swiftness of the overthrow. While following Trump’s treaty with the Taliban to exit Afghanistan, Biden ignored his predecessor’s plans for a strategic execution of the departure. Successive administrations offered false hope of defeating the Taliban, and the president fell right in step, assuring us just a month ago that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
And yet, that is precisely what occurred. Images of airport evacuations recall the fall of Saigon and increasing American vulnerability around the world. Biden now has to own the successive failures that have occurred on his watch just months into his administration and wonder if his guiding principle – to undo Trump by any means necessary – is the best way to govern a proud nation. Or is it a recipe for ongoing disaster?
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*Featured image: (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
