Monday, December 21, 2020

Is Biden strong enough to run a divided country?

 (My answer on Quora).

Joe Biden by himself is likely not strong enough. He enters as a tainted candidate with personal and political challenges looking more like accidental presidential advisor Chauncey Gardiner than any other POTUS before him. He is that weak and obviously flawed.

Chauncey Gardiner - A Character from the movie Being There starring Peter Sellers source: The Published Reporter.

However this could be immaterial. Biden will likely be no more than a figurehead in the Administration that carries his name anyway. His function was to serve as a placeholder alternative for an election that was a referendum on Trump’s personality and it seems to have worked. Job done….for now.

The bigger question then is will the cabal of powers behind Biden be up to the task? Can they serve to make the former Vice President seen more than just a talking head? C’mon man it won’t be easy.

For starters as the question implied the nation is extremely divided. Donald Trump lost narrowly in four swing states despite winning over 74 million votes. To many of his supporters the election was stolen. Biden is more of an asterisk President than anything else.

The GOP has narrowed the differential in the House and could very well secure the Senate (we will see in January). In addition SCOTUS now has a conservative/originalist majority with three Trump appointees on the bench. The Appeals and District courts have also been strengthened to make it more difficult for the Progressive agenda to see the light of day. State legislatures lean heavily towards the GOP who also control 26 of the 50 governorships.

There is in place the foundation for a solid resistance against any radical overhaul and Biden’s handlers know this. If they run too far to the left then the Donks will likely be crucified in 2022. However on the other hand they owe the radical element of their party a great deal. Without the buy in from the Party’s left wing and the endorsement of the Sanders’ camp, Biden would likely be this era’s version of Robert Dole. They will expect payback and rightfully so.

Source: The Colombus Dispatch

So far the cabinet appointees have not been kind to the Bros but this will have to change. There is a clear fault line here within the Democratic Party and it will not retreat mildly into the sun. When you build a coalition on Inter-sectional politics you will eventually have to pay the piper and it won’t come cheaply.

After the honeymoon period ends (and it won’t last long) the road could be primed for a rocky divorce. The Establishment backers know this and they will answer it with the necessary Danegeld. However it may get messy especially if the radicals feel scorned and the sin offerings are not adequate.

Biden has some likable qualities that may help him but he inherits a country where calls for unity ring hollow. The anger around the lockdowns haven’t helped and if the middle class feel as though they have been set adrift in favour of Biden’s multi-national corporate cronies it will not bode well for his administration. The United States stands at a cross-roads with a media that has lost the trust of the populace.

Biden Inc. could be facing strong opposition on two fronts from both the left and the right as the center shrinks. Globalism is looking a bit war weary and its brand utility may be on the wane. A worsening economy could bring matters to a head which may force the brain trust that runs will run his administration to cut their losses when they can. He could be their first victim. We will wait and see.

In any case where does this leave the nation in the mean time? Well we can’t say for sure. Biden could do much by taking a strong stand against China and by extension the CCP on both trade and national security issues. Beijing’s behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic has been problematic and disingenuous however I am not convinced that he will.

The Democrats have had Russia in their cross-hairs for awhile and they may use the excuse of the Solar Wind hack to up the ante against Moscow. This could backfire. A conflict here would suit Beijing to a tea and may not necessarily benefit the United States as some seem to think. Putin is a menace and should be taken to task but the US needs to exercise full diligence before acting rashly.

All in all his backers will have to proceed with caution. The margin of error is slim and people’s patience has worn thin. The Democrats weaponized every avenue of power in sight to take down Trump however the unintended (or intended) consequences may be more than they bargained for. The greatest tragedy would see the United States take a giant step on the road to decline while the Biden backers fiddle behind the scene.

Source: Daily Herald

G-d bless America.

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