OPINION:
Last weekend, the presumptive President-elect Joe Biden declared that he had a “clear victory” and issued an appeal to supporters of President Trump saying, “I understand the disappointment tonight.”
He then asked that both sides give each other “a chance” by setting aside the “harsh rhetoric” and to “stop treating our opponents as our enemies.” He then acknowledged that political opponents shouldn’t be enemies. “They are not our enemies, they are Americans,” he stated.
Indeed we’re all Americans, but half of us are very distrustful of Mr. Biden and his party who waged full-scale war on President Trump from the very moment of his 2016 victory, even boycotting his inauguration. Mr. Biden has much to do before the 71 million Americans who opposed him embrace the courtesy of cooperation he and his party so readily denied Mr. Trump. It will take more that honey-coated rhetoric to soothe the resentment that Trump supporters have toward the duplicitous actions of Democrats now seeking “unity.”
And therein lies the rub. Mr. Biden recited throughout his campaign that he would “work as hard” for those who opposed him as those who didn’t. That’s a contradiction in terms because his support for the agenda of the far left — a condition for their support for his candidacy — guarantees he will work against the hopes and desires of those who opposed him.
Consider the policy issues Mr. Biden has before him and ask a simple question. How can he work as hard for those who opposed him by working against the policies they fervently support? The plain truth is that what Mr. Biden thinks is good for us is not what half of America — 71 million voters — think is good for us.
Mr. Biden seeks to repeal the Trump tax cuts and impose a $4 trillion increase on an economy struggling to recover from a pandemic. With that he will re-regulate key areas of the economy that will hurt the recovery. Small business owners rightly wonder how that equates to “working for them.”
No where is that better illustrated than in Mr. Biden’s ominous pledge to end the oil and gas industry. Mr. Biden’s choices are not those of Americans who would labor under increased energy costs while he pleases advocates of the “New Green Deal,” a policy hurtful to people living paycheck to paycheck. That’s not “working for them.”
Health care is another area where Mr. Biden’s “work just as hard” promise falls short of reality. To be sure, many people in the country want universal health care, or at least a hugely expensive surrogate program Mr. Biden would give them. But there is no “give” in government without a substantial “take” and that means huge tax increases on many who did not support him. That’s not “working hard” for millions of us.
A Biden foreign policy will revert to the policies of the Obama administration, when America apologized for its role in the world, mollycoddled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, accepted Iran’s hegemony in the Middle East and tolerated North Korea’s nuclear proliferation. Maybe he thinks that’s “working for us,” but in reality it “works” to advance the malicious designs of our enemies.
Unlike President Trump’s willingness to put conservative jurists on the bench, Mr. Biden won’t because the far-left members of the progressive politburo would revolt if he did. His nominees will ignore the judicial principle of jus dicere, non jus dare, to declare the law, not to make the law. That won’t be “working for” those of us who seek fidelity to the U.S. Constitution.
Indeed, constitutional freedoms are at stake under Mr. Biden. His opposition to the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms requires no elaboration. But the far left’s hostility to free speech, the right to life, right to work laws and limited government also defies elaboration. Mr. Biden will certainly work against — not “for” — the policies of those who opposed him.
In his victory declaration on Nov. 7, Mr. Biden asserted, “The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a president for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me.” That promise amounts to an empty bromide for millions of people — fully half of the nation — that opposed him in 2020. It’s no more than a syrupy pledge that his far-left keepers will obstruct.
Finally, Mr. Biden claimed to have a “mandate” to cooperate with both parties as he seeks to govern America. But working against the profound aspirations of half of the nation by advancing the far-left’s agenda will produce more division, anger and gridlock. In truth, Mr. Biden must rein in his progressive left to work genuinely for “all of us.” That would be a worthy promise, but predictably an unlikely one.
• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired U.S. Army colonel, combat veteran and former member of the Virginia House of Delegates. He is the author most recently of “Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War.”
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