By any and all account, the debate between sitting president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump foreshadows an unimaginable political outcome that will be much worse than choosing the lesser of two evils.
On the one hand, we have a pathological liar, full of bluster ignoring questions he doesn’t want to answer, just to browbeat a doddering old man seemingly incapable of organizing any kind of response, much less carefully reasoned rebuttal.
The latter is of course Joe Biden, the current president. Next morning, the mainstream media chorus promptly calls for Biden to renounce his candidacy and release the delegates committed to his nomination as the candidate of the Democratic Party. They say he can best serve his country by not serving any longer.
However, Biden’s supporters say any old man on the verge of senility is entitled to a lapse or two. Let him continue his campaign on his record as “one of the best presidents ever.” Presumably, the American voters will be (fingers crossed) discerning enough to see the difference between a doer and a blowhard.
So just what has Biden accomplished in his first term of office (we’ll come to Trump later.)? I would like to count the way.
Biden can claim a strong economy despite inflation and national debt balloon
For investors in the stock market, they applaud Biden for a strong economy as their equity holdings have generally expanded and they happily counted their gains. But the interest rate did not come down and inflation held steady.
The majority of Americans, perhaps as much as 60%, that are not enriched by Wall Street feels the pain as their costs of living increases beyond their pocketbook. Even households with annual income of $100,000 complain that they can’t keep up.
Biden forgave student loans and handout money to those hurt by Covid and were not gainfully employed. The government handouts buoyed the economy but the federal debt continues to climb skyward, soon to top $35 trillion and annual interest payment will go over $1 trillion.
Biden’s answer to Trump’s make America great again (MAGA) was build back better (BBB). It’s hard to see how Biden’s BBB is outdoing MAGA. Highways are still riddled with potholes, bridges are shaky and trains derail all too frequently.
The homeless people that occupy American cities show no signs of receding. They remain an eyesore, a public health hazard and a blight on supposedly the wealthiest country in the world. Their cries for help do not register on Washington’s decibel meter.
Supposedly, Biden has tightened gun control across the country. Looking at the daily fatality from gun violence and incidences of mass shooting, it’s hard to notice that he has made a difference.
Biden gets F for foreign policy
Biden’s foreign policy can be kindly summarized as an unmitigated disaster. The damage to the U.S. prestige and credibility is epic and beyond recovery.
Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, as Biden’s chief emissary goes around the world, oblivious to his wearing a hospital gown, exhorting everyone to obey “rule based international order.” As he goes by, everyone can see that his international order is whatever he’s defining it to be and ignored when it suits the U.S.
The abrupt, near panic withdraw from Afghanistan left many loyal Afghans that served the American military in a lurch. Biden then promptly froze assets held in America that belonged to the Afghan nation, a surprise and shock to the rest of the world.
After Afghanistan, the Biden team revised their strategy to let others do the fighting for the U.S. Ukraine fighting the proxy war against Russia was a prime example.
Washington encouraged Ukraine to encroach Russian interest since 2014, which was before Biden’s regime. His team encouraged Ukrainian President Zelensky to continue to provoke Russia with promise of arms and money.
Russian president Putin finally lost patience and invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and now Zelensky is in a pickle. He is down to fighting to the last Ukrainian or sue for peace. Every time during this prolonged war, when Zelensky considered negotiating for ceasefire, the West urged him to continue on. The American reputation as the defender of democracy now rests on Ukraine winning the war.
If Zelensky is not allowed to negotiate for peace, he will need to push for NATO to join the fray. Putin has recently proposed a multipoint settlement for peace which was ignored by the West. He also promised to initiate first use of nuclear weapons if NATO were to enter the war. This is a threat that Biden has blithely ignored until it will be too late for regret.
Russia thrived thanks to Biden’s blunder
Biden thought he dealt Russia a death blow by confiscating their assets held in the U.S. and kick Russia off The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network thus depriving Russia right to participate in the most popular international payment and settlement system.
Then with the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, Russia was deprived of the EU as its most important customer for their oil and gas. Surely, this is the end of Russia’s economy. Instead, it was the EU economy that tanked when the EU countries lost their access to Russia’s cheap energy.
Russia not only survived but thrived. They turned to new customers such as China and India for their energy exports and they greatly expanded their trade with China and rest of the world. Shortly after Biden’s sanctions against Russia and denying Russia access to the dollar, the Russian economy has exploded to surpass even Japan.
Biden’s move to weaponizing the dollar backfired big time. He has personally destroyed the full faith and credit of the American greenback and most of the world now has de-dollarizing their reserve holding occupy their minds.
At one time Putin thought one of the peace dividends from the end of the Cold War was for Russia to join the European community. Instead, Russia is being embraced by the global community not aligned with the U.S.
Biden’s worse miscalculation has to be his policy with China. Rather than dismantling Trump’s tariff war on imports from China, he double down by imposing more tariffs on goods made in China. China responded with counter tariff of their own and by becoming the number trading nation with 80% of the world.
China has emerged as the world’s leader in electric vehicles (EV) and the technology for batteries for the EV. The wise thing to do is to invite the Chinese companies in to the U.S. to invest in factories and create jobs for Americans.
Instead, Biden has preemptively imposed a 100% tariff on EVs from China, even before China has sold any to the American market. Chinese EV car makers are building assembly plants in Mexico, and Washington will counter with appropriate tariff, notwithstanding the free trade treaty that exists between the U.S. and Mexico.
China is Biden’s worst miscalculation
Biden has insisted that he is not in favor of decoupling with China. Yet he could have a partial loaf of China’s EV and battery technology by insisting on Chinese companies forming partnership with American companies in order to enter the U.S. market. A turnabout of China’s old playbook. Now he gets no loaf.
Allowing low-end Chinese EVs into the U.S. would have given the low-income Americans a chance to own affordable transportation that would enhance their prospect for employment. Proliferation of EVs of any make would help the U.S. meet their commitment for lowering greenhouse gas emission.
Biden is determined to suppress China’s development at any cost, even at great harm to our own economy. Denying access to advanced semiconductor technology has meant American chip makers and chip making equipment companies forego a major part of their revenue. That’s a significant portion of loss sales that will not come back.
Forcing China to go it alone is a big mistake. Even in the 1960’s, an isolated China developed their atomic bomb and quickly followed with the hydrogen bomb on their own. Most recently, they sent a probe to the other side of the moon, extracted samples and safely brought the samples back. No other country has accomplished this feat.
There is no question that China has the technological prowess to develop the semiconductor technology that they will need. There is no small irony that the Pentagon weaponry depends on China’s supply chain of not so esoteric chips that perhaps nobody else bothers to make anymore.
Lastly, the American presence in the Middle East under Biden has become a bit of a joke. The mighty carrier, USS Eisenhower, had to hightailed out of the Red Sea to get away from missiles from the Houthis, a rag tag band of fighters that do not even qualify as a tiny national army.
Of course, Biden’s waffling and inability to stop the Gaza genocide has dashed American prestige to smithereens in the eyes of the Arab world.
More importantly, the strongest segment of the American public protesting the atrocities being inflicted by Israel on the Palestinians is the young voters. Heretofore, the Gen Z has been one of the strongest supporters for Biden. Gaza is likely to keep many at home and not vote.
So, what about candidate Donald Trump? This man is unprecedented in American history. He trampled the U.S. Constitution and violated laws at will. He is a disgrace but the elders of the Republican Party are even more shameful. They kowtow to him because winning is more important than protecting the integrity of the nation.
Were it not for the wheel of justice that grinds at snail pace under the Biden administration, Trump should already be sitting in some federal penitentiary. Now he will be counting on pardoning himself for all criminal activity upon entering the White House again.
What could be worse than Trump as President for life?
How will he perform the second time around? He is someone that believes tax revenue from import tariff as “free money.” Obviously, he will need a lot of help to come up with some rational-sounding domestic and international policies.
Already, Peter Nevermore, nee Navarro, is crowing and claiming credit as the originator of the anti-China policy that has continued on today. With him as the Trump whisperer, we can expect that not much will change in the bilateral relations with China.
Unless Chinese president Xi Jinping invites Trump to China for another official and formal head of state visit. Trump loves the pomp, ceremony and the attention that goes with the oom pah pah—of course the cheeseburger has to be part of the state banquet. He may even propose making the visit an annual event.
The bright side of a Trump presidency, should he deliver on his rhetoric, is to get out of NATO. The war machine would fall apart without U.S. participation and that’s a very good thing.
He has promised to stop the Ukraine war on day one. Not sure how he will go about doing that, but that is also a good thing.
He may decide that sending the U.S. navy to the South China Sea is an unnecessary expense and does not make America great. For that matter, posting American military around the world doesn’t make sense either and he could cut the defense budget by bringing our boys and girls home.
Not sure how he will finesse the Gaza situation since his biggest campaign backer places pro-Israeli interest over American interests.
The dark side of Donald Trump is to declare that he has decided he should serve as the U.S. president for life and the compliant Republican Congress rushes to endorse and the Supreme Court votes 6-3 in affirmation.
There you have it, my fellow Americans. Upon the next election, we will either have to rush in hospice care for one, or we will have the other announcing his cabinet from prison. Egad, can it get any worse than that?
