Monday, May 27, 2024

President Joe Biden's America

No, this post is not about the anywhere from 8 to 10 million people who have entered the country illegally during Biden's term in office.  People who the Democrats expect to vote Democrat.  Nor is this post about Biden's buying votes with his student loan forgiveness, having forgiven over $20 billion in loans just this year.  Biden:  "I will never stop working to cancel student debt - no matter how many times Republican elected officials try to stop us."  Actually, it was the Supreme Court of the United States that told him he had no legal authority to cancel student debt.  But that has not deterred him.

This post is not about the horribly tragic exit from Afghanistan, orchestrated by Biden.  It is not about Russia invading Ukraine under his watch (as also happened under Obama).  It is not about Hamas attacking Israel under his watch (as also happened under Obama).  It is not even about the withholding of weaponry from Israel in the middle of Israel's war with Hamas.  Nor is it about his Administration telling Israel to get of Gaza.  Even though Israel is trying to find the hostages, including the Americans, still being held by Hamas.

No, this post is about how Biden views the United States of America.  In his commencement address to the graduating students at Morehouse College (one of the HBCU colleges), Biden painted a dark picture of America.  Biden:  "You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race.  It's natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.  What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street?"

Why in the world did George Floyd have to come up.  He was a convicted criminal.  Biden was speaking to a group of accomplished young men.  That wasn't George Floyd.  As Jason Riley wrote in a 5/22/24 Op-Ed in the WSJ:  "...using a convicted felon and drug addict as a poster child for black men in this country is deeply insulting."  It is.  But it also reminiscent of Biden's racist comment in 2020, on the radio show of Charlamagne tha G-d:  "if you have a problem figuring out whether to vote for me or Trump, then you ain't black."  That's Biden, essentially calling anyone who might vote for Trump an "Uncle Tom."  A race traitor.  It is, and was, grotesque.  

But, in Biden's America, people are not individuals, they are part of groups.  More importantly, they are part of voting blocs.  Biden tells this graduating group that "Black men are being killed in the street."  Yes, the criminal George Floyd was killed in the street.  But, to the extent Black men are being killed in the street, it is overwhelmingly by other Black men.  It is not because of "white supremacy."  

Biden:  "What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave Black - Black communities behind?  What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?"  What a depressing speech.  I have long held that any leader who says, or even suggests, to young people that  society is stacked against them, whether based on their race or anything else, is evil, and is speaking evil.  Here was a better message:  "...your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African-Americans that came before it."  That was actually Barack Obama, who also told the then graduating students at Morehouse that they should not use any racism or discrimination as a crutch.  

Biden:  "And most of all, what does it mean, as we've heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn't love him back in equal measure?"  Wasn't Biden the one who promised in his inaugural address to be a unifying president?  Wasn't that the entire focus of that speech?  Well, if the country hates Black America (clearly the inference one could draw), then would it not be reasonable for Black men to hate the country?  Just a detestable speech.  But think about it.  Think about what it says about how the President of the United States views the country he leads.   

I cannot help but to feel bad for those graduating students, and their families, for having to listen to that speech.  It is generally understood that college commencement addresses are to be uplifting, meant to encourage young people as they are about to enter the working world, or go on to earn advanced degrees.  This is yet another occasion when Biden failed to say the right things.  But, it does tell us a whole lot about Biden's America.    

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