A March 2021 New York Times commentary referred to President Joe Biden as “transformational.” Columnist David Brooks heaped praise on him for his economic agenda, and concluded that the government’s role in American life is changing.
However, Brooks continued, Biden isn’t causing the shifts in government philosophy, “but he is riding them.”
Today’s “Bidenism,” compared to the formerly moderate Biden, has spurred “large numbers of thinkers” to cast aside their concerns about inflation, as well as other pesky, nagging economic and emotional doubts about government’s place in the lives of citizens.
If given the chance, and considering 2021’s rough ride, Brooks might pull back on his flattering column.
During his 2020 campaign, Biden promised the nation a transformational government, and he’s delivered, although not quite in the manner some envisioned.
Revoking the Keystone XL oil pipeline, halting oil and gas development in a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord, halting construction of the Southern border wall, signing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and signing the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Investment Act are doubtless transformational.
But they were not, as pundits like Brooks had envisioned, universally embraced.
On his pledge to transform America, Biden has delivered, more successfully but with greater damage to his presidency than his most ardent supporters could have envisioned. An NBC poll taken in mid-May showed his approval rating at 39%, largely because for the year-long period that ended in April, the annual inflation rate was 8.3%.
Biden’s transformative immigration developments are never-ending. On back-to-back days, May 16 and May 17, two immigration-related stories broke that demonstrate how porous the U.S. border is and how indifferent the White House is to enforcement.
First, the Homeland Security Department announced that U.S.-Mexico migrant encounters hit a new historic high of 234,088 in April; 110,000 were released into the United States, while under Title 42 about 97,000 were returned.
On May 20, U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays in Lafayette, Louisiana, granted a preliminary injunction blocking Biden from ending Title 42 on May 23. But Biden is defiant in his determination to end it, and the Justice Department immediately announced it would appeal the decision.
As Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas know, without Title 42, about 500,000 illegal aliens will overwhelm the U.S. border each month and then move into the U.S. interior.
During a Texas border tour, Mayorkas admitted that the United States will continue to welcome aliens who make what he mistakenly called a “valid claim of asylum protection” under U.S. laws. But aliens who travel from around the world are, as an MIT study confirmed, overwhelmingly economic migrants and as such don’t qualify for asylum.
The ultimate consequence of Biden’s willful refusal to enforce immigration law: Before his four-year term ends, millions of illegal immigrants will have been admitted, family reunification will begin, and a major demographic transformation of the nation will be underway.
In another recent immigration development, U.S. authorities discovered a tunnel linking Tijuana and San Diego equal to the length of six football fields that drug smugglers had used for an undetermined but doubtlessly lengthy period. When authorities located the tunnel, they seized nearly 2,000 pounds of cocaine, meth and heroin.
Because of indifference to border enforcement, U.S. fentanyl deaths exceeded 100,000 in 2021. Cartels, confident that the federal government won’t interfere, also profit from human trafficking, including transporting underage girls for prostitution.
As enthusiastic as Democrats may have been during Biden’s presidential 100-day honeymoon period, today they’re proceeding with caution. Many involved in competitive midterm elections this fall are hedging, as any watchful politician would, as to the feasibility of accepting Biden’s offer to join them on the campaign trail.
Giving the appearance of endorsing Biden’s unpopular American transformation will lead to their defeat.
— Joe Guzzardi is an analyst and researcher with Progressives for Immigration Reform who now lives in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at [email protected] and joeguzzardi.substack.com, or follow him on Twitter: @joeguzzardi19. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
