2024: An American Watershed

Presidenti(ish) Joe Biden’s listless economy, brutal inflation, energy policies, chaotic foreign policies, and illegal southern border intrusions will make the 2024 presidential election the most critical for America’s well-being since 1980 when Ronald Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter.

Reagan’s successors, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, served post-Cold War. Although the Bushes involved America in Middle East conflicts, some controversial, when Barack Obama’s presidency began, Iraq was at least stabilized, the Middle East largely peaceful, and terrorist threats were minimized.

Clinton received a Cold War peace dividend, and, by withdrawing American troops from Iraq, Obama anticipated another.

But, Obama’s – and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s – foreign policies destabilized much of North Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Obama’s conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the residual effects of policy errors in Iran, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan outlived his presidency, as did China’s ambitions in the South China Sea and Pacific.

President Donald Trump’s foreign policies largely quieted all of those regions, defanged a nuclear North Korea, and earned China’s and NATO countries’ respect. All were lost in Biden’s first year.

Biden also opened our southern border to illegal alien health threats, cartel/criminal activity and terrorist infiltration. His ignominious withdrawal turned Afghanistan and $billions of military armaments/equipment/supplies over to ruthless Taliban tribesmen who are selling portions of their windfall to other unfriendly regimes.

Today, inflation caused by “Bidenomics” is increasing poverty, and Federal Reserve interest rate hikes intended to control inflation impose hardships on borrowers. Moreover, income inequality has increased, and real household income is declining, while America’s growing $32 trillion+ debt already exceeds last year’s total economic output by about $7 trillion.

Data from Biden’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that 72 percent of the “jobs created” for which Biden claims credit were reclaimed jobs lost during COVID lockdowns.

Dysfunction, nonfeasance and malfeasance at politicized government agencies, including, among others, the IRS, the Department of Justice, State, Homeland Security, and the National Institute of Health/Centers for Disease Control remain unresolved and unpunished.

Furthermore, the stench of corruption has enveloped Mr. Biden. The House Oversight Committee has already released details of at least $10 million from foreign, including unfriendly interests distributed to Biden’s family. Biden, himself, may be compromised by China. Additional discoveries keep adding to the evidence of Biden scandals.

But, although polling shows 56 percent of voters, including 39 percent of Democrats, agreeing that, as vice president, Biden very or somewhat likely took bribes from foreign nationals, most media give Biden a pass.

If Biden were a Republican, by now, so-far-dormant media would be urging criminal investigations, charges and impeachment.

Biden’s best defense may be that he isn’t really in charge, a suspicion many have harbored since Inauguration Day.

There was nothing in an aged, mentally/physically impaired Joe Biden’s always-mediocre intellectual, moral or political credentials to indicate he would be an ethical or effective president.

He is neither.

America needs a president who, like Ronald Reagan, can be a vehicle for rediscovering, re-expressing and rejuvenating the American people’s native optimism and common sense.

Donald Trump’s single term recaptured some of that spirit, but Trump is so polarizing that half the country will not vote for him. And the other half, perhaps more, will refuse to vote for Biden. In another recent survey, an overwhelming 71 percent of respondents, including half of Democrats, said Joe is too old to run again.

Early on, Trump and Biden lead party polls, but few Americans relish a 2020 rematch. Biden’s unintelligible vice president is not a presidential prospect – Washington offers few – so some voters are considering sitting governors.

In fact, the most likely alternatives could come from among America’s most and least successful governors. Anti-woke Republican Governor Ron DiSantis of Florida, a prosperous, well run magnet for disaffected red state émigrés, won a landslide reelection, while hyper-woke California Democrat Gavin “A-litle-dab’ll-do-ya” Newsome’s poor governance drove more than 500,000 citizens out of the Golden State in two years. In fact, Newsome had to survive a 2021 recall election to remain in office.

Nonetheless, liberal media love Newsome, and will slander any Republican, no matter how anodyne, as “literally Hitler!” It’s what they do. They even tried to “nazify” Ronald Reagan.

The 2024 election is crucial. If Biden is reelected or another Democrat succeeds him, national revival will be impossible.

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2023/07/17/jerry-shenk-2024-an-american-watershed/