The theme of the day appears to be helplessness. I have seen quite a number of opinion pieces which distilled down to their essences share that theme. For example, James Joyner, in reaction to a piece at CNN, in a tone that is half mocking and half lament, points to the limitations of presidents and Americans’ excessive expectations of them:
There’s a whole lot more, some of which actually gets to potential hard policy choices that Biden could make, but—SPOILER ALERT!!!—they all come with significant downside risk.
President George W. Bush was mocked, even by those of us who supported him, for repeatedly telling us that the job was “hard work†during a debate with John Kerry. He wasn’t wrong, though. And he got re-elected, too, so maybe Americans actually understand that at some level.
My reaction to that is multiple. First, if Joe Biden did not want to be blamed for things that aren’t fully within his control or, more realistically, are hard to control, he should never have sought the presidency. That goes with the turf.
But my second reaction was that the very least we should expect from presidents is that they not make matters worse. Candidate Biden signaled that President Biden would be open to more immigration across our southern border and, by George, we got it. One of President Biden’s first actions was shutting down the Keystone Pipeline. That and his campaign messages were loud and clear. President Biden’s multiple subsidy bills have been contributing factors to inflation. Those are far from the only examples that could be cited.
Finally, the “bully pulpit” is not dispositive but it’s not nothing, either. Presidents need to be careful of what they say. People, at least some people, do listen.
“…they all come with significant downside risk.”
Figure that out all by yerself, James? Being an analyst is easy. Being an executive is hard.
“Presidents need to be careful of what they say.”
And promise. Joe Biden, a not too bright, pedestrian career Senator, was almost uniquely unqualified for the presidency. I’d say uniquely, but then there is Kamala.
Hmm, if Biden has the ability to control how many people show up at the border then when he continued Title 42 and said we didnt need all of these people at the border then they all went away, correct? Or does the control only work in one direction? Why is that?
Steve
Not how many but whether they increase or decrease. We don’t know whether President Biden’s recent actions increased the number of encounters at our southern border, deceased them or had not effect. For one thing they haven’t reported the numbers for March yet.
And it’s possible it will take more strenuous action to reduce the flow. The pull factors are still strong.
The March numbers were around 220,000 people illegally caught crossing the border. It was considered the highest number in decades. Of course it was Biden’s actions, stripping away all working policies, agreements, made under the Trump Administration, by Biden’s knee-jerk EOs that have created the bedlam at the border. However, few feel or understand the chaos there, except those communities immediately impacted by such enormous streams of people, as the WH and legacy press ignore the southern border, putting their undivided attention instead on overseas borders.
Nonetheless, keep your eyes on how people will vote in November – those who are personally living the Biden open-border experience – and see how many districts do a 180 on trading in their once traditional support for Dems to Republican candidates.