In the wake of the tragic bombing at the Kabul airport, a number of Republicans have called for President Biden to resign for ‘lack of leadership.’ The audacity to make such statements is staggering in light of the actions of the previous administration. One of the signs of a true leader is a willingness to accept responsibility for the decisions they make and for the personnel under their direction, even if those decisions are controversial. I defy anyone to point to one controversial decision that Trump made for which he took full responsibility. His gross mishandling of the COVID pandemic from the beginning resulted in tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of American lives lost. Did he take any responsibility for any of that? Of course not.
Imagine if you will, if Trump had won a second term and he was in charge now. First of all, the deal he negotiated with the Taliban, without inclusion of the Afghan government, called for the American withdrawal to have been completed by May of this year. What do you think would have happened if Trump had been in charge? You just have to reflect back to what happened in Syria when Trump abruptly pulled American troops out of the region and abandoned our Kurdish allies. Do you think that Trump would have embarked on the massive airlift of personnel that you now see going on? Hell no.
Trump would have pulled out the American troops and basically said, ‘Screw you,’ to the thousands of Afghans who are now safe due to the airlift undertaken by this administration. We know this is true because of Trump’s well-known distaste for immigrants and refugees. If you really think this would have been handled any better under a Trump administration, you have not been paying attention.
These calls for Biden to resign ring especially hollow because as you recall, the previous president was impeached – twice. He fomented an insurrection at the United States capitol when, for the first time in American history, he refused to concede in an election he clearly lost by 7 million votes. And these idiot Republicans have the audacity to call for Biden to resign. Once again, the hypocrisy is staggering.
As I stated yesterday, these same people who are calling for Biden to resign are some of the same people who are directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of American lives because of a complete disregard of scientific and medical data to promote proven public health measures. If anyone should resign, it should be these people who have shown that they value politics, greed and power over trying to save American lives.
As the war in Afghanistan is coming to a close, the war on voting rights here in this country is just heating up. One would have thought that after the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s that this issue would have been settled 50 years ago. However, we are again. Today, there are going to be a number of Protect Voting Rights marches across the country to protest the voter suppression laws being enacted in most Republican-controlled states.
One would think, if the Republican platform and policies were widely popular, they would want to do everything in their power to encourage more and more people to vote. Given that they are doing the exact opposite of that and are trying to limit the number of people who can vote, with a focus primarily on laws that will have a large impact on people of color, it is easy to understand why they are doing what they are doing. The Republican platform and policies are not widely popular across the majority of America and, in fact, the ‘base’ of the Republican Party is shrinking.
Rather than adjust their policies and platform to better reflect the constantly evolving demographics and ideologies that make up this country, they have chosen instead to try to freeze time, not recognize that the country is a living, breathing and evolving entity, and create and live in an alternate reality. Following this path will just contribute to the ongoing tension, polarization and divisiveness in this country. It is unsustainable in the long run. History is replete with examples of empires and societies that tried to do exactly the same thing – they all eventually rupture. We should all brace ourselves for what is coming, “Civil Rights Movement – Act 2”!
I can see it now, the current Republican leadership and all of the ‘Dark Money’ behind them are probably sitting up in their plush offices, looking down on the masses with an air of entitlement like they know, better than anyone else, what is good for the country (and their wallet) and, in the infamous words attributed (rightly or wrongly) to Marie Antoinette, saying “Let them eat cake.” And we know how well that worked out for her!