Bob Ehrlich: A Biden Presidency Would Send America Back to Obama Years
The following is not another analysis of an unbalanced mainstream media.
We know the establishment leans left on its best day, and really hates this president as much for his conservative record as for the way he treats them.
Neither is it another rendition of how much additional media protection Democratic presidential nominees are accorded at the expense of their GOP counterparts. A detached comparison of Mitt Romney coverage versus Barack Obama coverage would make the point.
Instead, the following is an opinion column on what the country has in store should Joe Biden somehow win in November.
First, just about everybody understands the man we see today is not the man we knew as a U.S. senator and vice president. That politician certainly had his share of flaws — including sometimes inappropriate and goofy public comments — but in most respects the younger Joe Biden was a respected mainstream liberal from a reliably blue state.
He was also (famously) known as “Amtrak Joe” — the man who preferred coming home to Delaware every night rather than attending the endless round of Capitol Hill cocktail parties and receptions that dot most members’ schedules. A lot of people in Delaware — Democrats and Republicans — said, “good for him.”
Fast-forward to today and a far more distressing picture emerges. It’s all there if you choose to see it: the occasional bad temper, the indiscreet comments, the inability to finish sentences because the predicate loses him. The instincts are still there — he knows he is supposed to oppose the bad guy (Trump) in every way — he just has a tough time explaining why.
Whether it’s simply a matter of age or something else is the topic of much conjecture these days.
So far, at least, his handlers have responded in expected ways: relatively few public events and carefully staged videos did the trick throughout the primaries.
Of course, a nationwide shutdown has helped as large campaign events are postponed, perhaps indefinitely. But even the highly choreographed video segments have not gone smoothly. Loss of context remains a recurrent theme once Mr. Biden is off the teleprompter. (The matter of Tara Reade is not included herein as the once-lost presumption of innocence is — at least temporarily — back in vogue among the mainstream media.)
But that’s only the half of it. A reasonable take on the Biden agenda, derived from his public pronouncements to date, suggests yet another instance of a proud liberal acquiescing repeatedly to relentless progressive pressure.
Here, a once-solid defender of legal immigration repeats the “squad’s” far-left call for the elimination or restructuring of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Here, a once mainstream pro-choice senator and long supporter of curbs on taxpayer funding (per the Hyde Amendment) now performs a 180 on funding while running to a position far to the left of Roe v. Wade.
Here, “Scranton Joe,” a staunch defender of Pennsylvania’s energy industry (and all those high-paying jobs held by western Pennsylvania’s union Democrats) campaigns against the natural gas revolution and American energy independence — a nonstarter for those blue-collar types who prefer work over the aspirational promises of the Green New Deal.
Here, he further pledges to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement — just what the dirty energy-emitting Chinese desire.
Here, we see a swift foreign policy shift back towards Obama-era indulgence, a time in which America looked the other way while China took batting practice on our intellectual property and Iran instigated a campaign of worldwide terror while developing its destabilizing ballistic missile program. As for the Middle East, pro-Israel voters can forget the warm relationship between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Instead, a Biden administration would more likely recall the flavor of John Kerry-era gratuitous antagonism vis-à-vis the Jewish state. One wonders if a Biden administration would move our embassy back to Tel Aviv.
Here, those same western Pennsylvania union Democrats noted above will be shocked to learn that reasonable old Joe has morphed into gun-grabber Joe, just another progressive promising to confiscate your guns under the auspices of … Beto O’Rourke!
Here, the Trump era’s steadfast support of school choice for poor kids will be repealed by the latest and greatest demands of powerful anti-choice teacher unions.
Here, a Biden administration would feed the worst (shutdown) instincts of blue state governors, further deepening the death spirals imposed on tens of thousands of America’s small businesses.
“Here” is a place America languished for the eight long Obama years before a different leader with decidedly different ideas appeared on the scene.
The new guy gave America three shockingly productive years before a worldwide pandemic intervened. Here’s betting the voters will double down on those first three years rather than return to a “here” that looks and sounds distressingly like an Obama third term.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
