2021. Done..Good Riddance
What can you say about this past year that hasn’t already been said?
While this year may have seemed a repeat of last year, it wasn’t at all like last year. We had a virus crippling our nation last year. We had a government response that went from confused to uninformed to inconsistent back to confused last year. We had an economy that in spite of circumstances held up pretty well last year. We had a National media at war with Donald Trump last year.
Wait a second! That is exactly what we are dealing with this year!
I don’t ever recall back to back years looking so eerily similar as 2020 and 2021. The only difference is that we have a different administration in the White House and they are doing their own brand of damage to this country but otherwise they look similar.
Over the course of this year I have bashed President Biden repeatedly and with good reason. At times, he looks lost. At times he looks like the task is just too big for him. At times, he looks weak and that might be the biggest problem of all.
Had I started writing this Substack at the beginning of last year I am sure I would be equally as hard on President Trump. To many of my friends dismay, I was not a big fan of Donald Trump but I can acknowledge that there were a multitude of things that President Trump did that I agreed with. I think it was more of his persona that I disliked rather than what his administration accomplished. The truth is, if Covid had never happened, Donald Trump would have been reelected by a landslide. The bottomline for every election except for this one was always about your wallet and the economy was roaring prior to the pandemic. If you asked any American in January of 2019 if they are better off now than in January of 2016, the majority would say yes and that majority would have voted to keep the current President in power.
I am not going to run off like some right wing conservative and trash everything President Biden has done but I do think even moderate Democrats can see things are not turning out as planned. I am sure they knew that President Biden has been declining somewhat in his mental acuity. That is to be expected as he gets older and keeping him sequestered in the White House for the better part of his administration will be a smart move but with him slowly moving out of frame shouldn’t Kamala Harris be moving into the frame a little more. I might be wrong but I think many Americans don’t think Joe Biden will make it through the next three years and the party elected Biden and Harris, so where is Harris?
I have had this discussion before and the accusation was that I wouldn’t be saying negative things about Kamala Harris if she were a white male and I disagree. I have no issue with a woman of color being Vice President or even President. I have an issue with someone who needs to step in front of the mike and help her nation by being that voice that can eloquently express what the administration is doing in regards to…
She is not that person. How do you become the “Czar” of the Border Crisis and never go visit the Border? She goes to Guatamala and tells the president there, we don’t need any more migrants coming to the US. Lame. Whatever her reputation was prior to entering DC politics is gone. Her crusading is just a memory and she has not shown any ability to lead and to me, given the mental condition of our President, that is her only job right now.
I will freely admit I don’t know all the machinations of the Democratic party but I am pretty sure they have a hand in keeping her down. Could be that if they press her to take a more active role, President Biden might appear to look weak or getting weaker and I understand that but let’s face it, as I said before, most Americans don’t think he will make it through his full term. Let her show that she has the mental toughness to be President.
Back to President Biden. I know it really is early in his administration but I am going to still give him a C-. I am a little hard pressed to come up with any major positives so far but unlike many people I don’t think his handling of Covid was atrocious. Bad, yes, but I think no matter who was in office I think it would have been handled poorly. Not so much because the present administrations were inept but because we have never truly prepared ourselves for anything like this. It is a one off and it has lasted a year longer than anyone could have ever imagined so no matter what you think about the administration’s handling of the pandemic has been, it could have been worse and I doubt anyone could have done better. Anyone that thinks they could have handled it better is delusional.
The administration will be tested next year by both China and Russia and this is where strength of resolve and clarity of mind will be key components and unfortunately, I do not think this administration has either. From its bungling of the Afghan withdrawal to dealing with Iran (yes, Iran) it has shown an ineptitude on the global stage that is frightening.
Forgive me if I am wrong but as I was growing up I always believed that the Republicans were mediocre to poor on domestic issues and did well in International affairs. While Democrats were impressive at home with social programs and domestic dealings they were horrible Internationally.
This administration so far has botched both. I do think there is time to turn that around and this is where backbone comes in. President Biden has been taken over by the Progressive faction in his party and that is a shame because he was elected as the great mediator, bringing both sides to the table. No, he listens to a progressive agenda that has so many holes in it that some in his own party are running from it. He needs to stand up and think of the whole country and not just some loud segment with a contrary agenda. That should be his first move in 2022 and I do think that if he shows some resolve at home, his counter-parties in Russia or China might think twice about moving their destructive agendas along.
He also needs to follow through if he decides to take a firm stand. If you recall, the Obama Administration drew some red line in the sand in Syria and Putin and Assad mocked him for it. The US did nothing and Syria turned into an incredible killing zone. So much for US Foreign Policy. That can’t happen here.
Right now, the Russians hold most of the cards regarding the Ukraine. They have the fighting forces in place. They have a divided Europe losing sleep over it. They have an American President who threatens more sanctions but forgets that Putin could care less about his countrymen and the Western Europe needs Russia’s natural gas. Its a sticky situation and how it plays out is anyone’s guess but if I were a betting man, I would bet that Russia does make a move into the Ukraine during the winter. NATO’s response will be a big question mark since the Ukraine is not part of NATO. In this scenario, the one thing the Russians don’t want is the Polish army to get involved. Just keep an eye on that in 2022.
As far as the Chinese and let’s say Taiwan goes, that’s a horse of a different color. The Chinese are a much bigger problem on a Global scale. Global trade for better or worse goes through China somehow and we have seen what disruptions in that trade mean to the Global economy. The Chinese know this and they are not afraid to step out of the norms of Global interactions for their own purposes. I think the Chinese feel that they can take Taiwan at anytime and don’t feel any rush to do it. They are building up their military power quickly and they want to have the reach that the US has enjoyed and enforced ever since the end of World War II. They always look at the long picture and their focus now is to just keep supplying the World with whatever it needs as they build a military force over time to rival the Americans and at some point, like the US during the Reagan years, they will have outspent their rivals to the point of that superiority without having ever fired a shot.
This scenario has really nothing to do with the Biden administration or any administration in the past or in the future. It is the Chinese doing what they have always done, Five Year Plans are immediate to them, Twenty Year and Fifty Year plans are standard operating principles and unless some major event happens, there really is little we can do to disrupt those plans.
Except one thing, change the course of dependence on Chinese manufacturing. Easier said than done. We are dependent on Chinese products like we were dependent on OPEC oil and that cycle can be broken but it takes resolve and a rethinking of the way we do business Worldwide. I do think it’s possible but highly unlikely because if there is one thing Americans like is low priced merchandise.
Whew! I had a lot on my chest today and this year and I thank you for reading. There will not be a column on Friday because even Rock and Roll needs to take a rest now and then. Happy New Year