Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
Donald Trump’s lone primary opponent, Nikki Haley, likes to say chaos follows him and that’s why he shouldn’t be president again.
But, if we’re to be completely honest, when you weigh Trump’s personal assholery against whatever the hell’s been going on with the Joe Biden administration in the last three years, you can see why Trump still has better than a puncher’s chance at re-election.
Trump’s chaos stems from his personality, and I suspect if he’s elected again we’ll see more of it. The Biden chaos, however, comes from his obvious inability to govern. We caught a glimpse of that right out of the chute in the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
What a debacle.
Biden said one thing on national TV, then his administration did something different, often minutes after Biden got off the air.
Most damning came when he promised on national TV that we would not see a repeat of our hasty withdrawal from Saigon and we would never, ever leave Americans and friends behind. Hours later, we did exactly that. Shamefully, thousands remain behind still.
We saw this kind of disconnect again on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel. The Biden Administration’s top brass (including the secretary of state) sympathized with the notion of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Then Biden mumbled something about unwavering support for Israel. Since then we’ve seen vacillation from the White House. Now we’re in a deadly tit-for-tat shooting war with a number of factions in the Middle East, some of whom likely have nuclear capability. Three of our troops were killed by a drone attack in Jordan last Sunday.
This is dangerous. And, like in Afghanistan, we don’t know who’s calling the shots.
Is it the same guys who botched Afghanistan?
Is it the team that saw America’s top military man go AWOL for four days without anyone noticing, including the president?
Is it our frail president who routinely stumbles, calls a lid on a work day at 10:06 a.m., can’t find his way off stage at public appearances and mumbles incoherently in front of world leaders?
That’s scary enough. Now, add to that Biden’s performance on the economy.
The American dream of home ownership for our children has dimmed under the Biden watch. This is not a contested fact. Substantially higher interest rates under Biden alone have insured that. But the lasting factor is in the higher cost of everything else since Biden took over.
It costs more – a lot more – to feed a family in America today than it did before Biden took over. That’s also a fact not in dispute.
Republicans blame Biden. Biden blames Putin. I don’t know who Putin blames.
What I do know is that the economy sucks and it’s going to continue to suck wind long into 2024. So, if I have to pick between flaws, I’ll take Trump’s chaos of personality over Biden’s chaos of incompetency.
It’s a safer bet going forward.
ADDENDUM
Look, to those who may not share my take on Trump so eloquently articulated above, I know there are a lot of issues swirling about these days that may lead some to prefer another approach. Reproduction rights, taxation, social issues, immigration, privacy concerns all mix in when making a call. I’m not here to tell you one call is righteous and another is evil.
I’m just laying out how I see the scales tipping this election year.
Agree or no, please do your American thing. Election day in Nevada is Tuesday, Feb. 6. The general election is in November. Democracy depends upon everyone taking responsibility.
Vote early. Vote once. This is still the greatest experiment in government the world has ever known.
ONE MORE THING
(Sherman R. Frederick is member of the Nevada Press Association’s Hall of Fame. He can be reached at ShermFrederick@gmail.com.)
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