OPINION:
This is not a “dire prediction” because we will recover from Joe Biden’s more generalized failure as a president, but it could be quite a painful process for us to get back on the political track we had become very comfortable with.
The reason Mr. Biden will fail so soon is that many more millions than voted for him will realize — and quickly — that they made a mistake. In some ways, it will be a similar reaction than was to the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976, when many of his voters quickly realized they had screwed up.
So why/how did we elect the wrong person — both in 1976 and again in 2020? The exact reason for this was/is the focused public voter reaction on a single and very specific set of circumstances, rather than as an endorsement of a generalized political agenda.
Specifically, in 1976, it was the collective negative reaction to the Watergate scandal, the resignation of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon. The earlier resignation of Nixon’s Vice President Spiro Agnew — as part of a separate scandal — also contributed. Result? A single negative issue set and Mr. Carter was elected.
In 2020, we were — and still are — in the midst of a pandemic that has killed millions worldwide and hundreds of thousands of Americans. As such it was understandably the most central and single significant issue of the election and it alone primarily determined its outcome — ergo Mr. Biden.
Doubt this? Just answer this very specific question: Had there been no COVID-19 pandemic — none at all — who would have won our 2020 election? Answer: Donald Trump by a huge landslide, as he was the architect of the most significant short-term economic prosperity in our recent history.
And this reality was proven over and over in continued and improved employment and income statistics for all aspects and sectors of our economy — especially workers and more especially women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and the other measurable demographic groups.
However, and despite Mr. Trump’s record economic prosperity, a majority of Americans “voted the pandemic,” which also elected Joe Biden. Do we doubt this? Had the Democrats been in office and the pandemic struck as it did last year, the result would also have been voting the Democrats out — and directly because of the pandemic, a single-issue election.
So, Mr. Biden would have most likely not been elected had there not been a pandemic. But there was/is a pandemic and Mr. Biden was elected as a consequence. However, the premise here is that he will also fail — and soon.
How exactly will this happen? It’s simple really, and will be the result of a combination of some basic factors:
• The COVID-19 pandemic will persist, along with the political accusations of incompetency. The Biden administration will suffer as did the Trump administration, albeit with far less negative media attention.
• Personally, Mr. Biden is a consummate and self-promoting nitwit — has been for many years — and it will be impossible to hide this from general view as we will be forced to listen to his gaffes every day. But again, with far less negative media attention — as the media will report on him reading from the tele-prompter.
• The economy will continue to reflect the negative effects of the pandemic — and the federal government will continue to have a minor role in managing local pandemic effects and dynamics.
• The assumption of the DNC and the Biden administration that the 2020 election was some kind of liberal mandate will fail miserably. And this dynamic will likely be the main factor in Mr. Biden’s failure.
• Issues such as “U.S. Supreme Court packing,” elimination of the Electoral College and statehood for D.C. will cause almost immediate voter reaction in the makeup of Congress. This just as the Clinton administration’s restrictions affecting Second Amendment freedoms did in the 1994 “off year” election — when Republicans captured control of Congress for the first time since 1952 by picking up eight seats in the Senate and 54 seats in the House. This will likely happen again if the “Liberal Mandate” fantasy is taken seriously by Mr. Biden and his DNC crew.
• Mr. Biden’s kid Hunter, and his family business relationships with China will continue to embarrass, causing Mr. Biden to continue to avoid and misrepresent the issues with a series of increasingly unbelievable statements.
• Our national security, intelligence and foreign policy will do an abrupt flip back to the Obama administration’s dual pattern of failure and misrepresentation — and with many of the same Obama appointees put in senior jobs. This will result in a net reduction of U.S. influence in various international fora and also in our key bilateral relationships. And the “costs” of these collective actions will be enormous — mostly to the direct detriment of our immediate and longer term national security, both at home and abroad.
• Foreign trade? Look for the cancellation/reduction of the enormous trade advantages the Trump administration negotiated for us and the resulting negative impacts on our economy.
Am I wrong? Well, as our moms used to say: “We’ll see”, and as we also know, that usually meant “no.” The advantage of these predictions is that we will know — and soon — whether they are accurate … and so will Joe Biden.
The 2020 election was not in any way a liberal political mandate — rather it was a focused reaction to a serious national and worldwide health emergency.
• Daniel Gallington writes about national security related policies and politics. He served in a series of senior national security policy, intelligence and arms control positions.
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