So Many Ideas, So Little Time
As I continue on this little journey of writing a Substack column three times a week, sometimes I have trouble coming up with a pertinent topic and sometimes I have a bunch of ideas and I have to figure out which one of them will be the most informative and entertaining for my readers.
This is one of those weeks. I originally wrote a full column on the fallacy of ESG and DEI. The bulk of my subscribers probably would have liked it but there are a few who may have felt something a bit different. ESG and it’s followers are being cast aside and for good reason, it’s a dumb concept for investing. DEI on the other hand can get some peoples fur up and my unreleased column surely would have raised the hackles of the jackals. I’ll save it for another time.
The other column which I thought might be interesting would be about the War in Gaza and what will Israel do after it’s over. I am still thrashing about some angles on that story and hopefully I can say something interesting on the subject.
My last idea was the easiest and you know me, I am no “The Road Less Taken” guy. Simple, easy and easily defensible. It is, as it happens, Wednesday and you know what that means. Throwing shade on Joe Biden.
For those who just started reading my column, I am no fan of President Biden. I feel bad for him in a way but that is secondary to my feelings about the job Joe Biden has done so far. I only have vague recollections of LBJ and I still think Richard Nixon was a better President than he was given credit for. Sure he was a crook. Sure he was ultra paranoid. He still had quite a few positives under his reign. Jimmy Carter, yes I did vote for him, was a good man that was not up to the task. Obama? Never cared for his outsized ego and his lack of getting anything substantial done. I liked the Bushes. I also thought that Bill Clinton was a decent President as well. Trump? What can I say that hasn’t already been said. Guy is a liar, grifter and confidence man. Yet, he still stood the economy on it’s ear and showed the World that he wasn’t some spineless dolt (Biden?).
With all that on the plate I think I can safely say that Joe Biden is the worst President in my lifetime. He has had some successes but like any major legislations that any President pushes, they all came at a cost.
While the border situation hasn’t directly affected me yet, the residual affects are pretty plain to see. Cities are being overwhelmed and the Federal Government has to know some of that responsibility has to fall on them as well as the state and local governments. That, I think is a major miscue by the Biden administration.
You mess something up, you throw money at it to ease the pain. That’s Democratic tradition is it not? Yet, it seems the Biden Administration is completely clueless to the fact that allowing millions of people into this country is going to have some profound affect wherever these people land.
I will repeat this and I feel very strongly about this: There is nothing wrong with having a workable immigration policy and holding to it. I do not know what that policy might look like but the policy of having no policy is not working. This country needs immigrants. To keep an expansion of economic significance going, there is a need for workers from every age level and what we are seeing, just like in Japan, is a greying of the American population. Without immigration, we will never be able to expand our economy and create new wealth. It will turn stagnant and economic growth will slow and stop. Government spending can not make up for a lack of lower wage employees.
This open border policy just seems more political than humanitarian. Getting millions of potential Democratic voters into this country seems like a plan out of some Eric Von Lustbader novel but it seems plausible considering that some localities have dubious voter requirements.
I know this will never happen but the simplest fix for that situation would be to have a standard Federal policy regarding voting. You need to be a citizen. You need to have a valid ID that is current. All elections should be conducted the exact same way. With the amount of technology we have out there, how hard can it be to have a standard, safe and secure way to vote. Great minds are doing Tik Tok videos and earning millions, maybe they should actually do something productive and develop a voting system that works. Democracy seems to have a limited dollar value.
I know the libertarians out there don’t want the Federal government to have it’s corrupt hand in anything as important as the elections. I get that but sometimes the only answer is the power of the US Government with some strong bipartisan oversight.
I digress (again). The reason I am on this again is simple; Why do 40% of the population think Joe Biden is doing a good job? I just don’t get it. Probably because they are in the Biden camp, no matter what. The same thing happened during the Trump administration. He always had a 40-45% approval rating. Belief is stronger than common sense sometimes and that’s probably why his approval rating is so high (even though it’s historically low, but you get what I mean).
As for 2024, the Democrats are sticking with him. They think he is the best choice? Says a lot about the party I think. They do have viable choices and they are grooming them for a 2028 run, which is dumb. They could have sunk President Biden 8 months ago, suffered the fallout something like that would have caused and then let a Gavin Newsome or a Gretchin Whitmer rise from the ashes. They missed that opportunity and now it will most likely be a Biden-Harris ticket again. That could be disastrous.
A badly wounded Donald Trump could beat that ticket and many Republicans cringe at that secretly. The only hope for that ticket and the country is if Trump chooses a solid running mate because there is a good chance Donald Trump will not be in office by the end of his term either. Jail, impeachment or something worse.
With all that on the plate, I think the most important part of the next election will be each candidates running mate because regardless of who wins, they may not last through the first two years and their Vice President will be handed the keys to the Kingdom.