DEMOCRATS DON’T KNOW HOW TO WIN

Bill’s Beef

By Bill Zeman

They have had an undivided government for eight months as of this writing and all they have managed is the American Rescue Plan, which was good because it has helped get Covid 19 under control. They got 10 Republican senators to agree to a hard infrastructure bill that a vast majority of the nation supports and have not got it signed into law yet as of the time of this writing. The Progressive wing is holding it hostage to the so-called Soft Infrastructure bill, the components thereof also being overwhelmingly popular, but they are holding it up to make sure both pass, but both will anyway. They could have been started on the hard infrastructure by now and there would have been a chance for a bi-partisan spirit in Washington.

The Republicans have been busy making it harder to vote for Democrats all over the country where they control State Legislatures largely thru gerrymandering, and the Democrats have bills to stop this, but it is being held up by two Democratic senators. One is Joe Mancin who says he does not want what to alter the constitution by voting to overturn the Filibuster Rule of the senate that would make passage of the civil rights bill possible. He knows this is not a matter of the constitution, but is lying about it to cover his real reasons, whatever they may be.  This failure to pass this imperils every election yet to come. It remains to be seen whether or not the American voters in Republican states will jump thru all the many new hoops to vote in large numbers again as they did in 2018 and 2020.

Joe Biden got it right about Afghanistan that it was finally time to end this black hole sucking up lives and money with no end in sight. But, he could not have done it worse. First of all, why did he repeat Trump’s mistake, and give a hard date for withdrawal. That puts you at an huge disadvantage because your enemies can plan accordingly. Trump made a bad deal with the Taliban, but they broke it anyway, so Biden did not have to follow it.

The best way to withdraw would be to just start doing it, and of course the enemy would notice and step up their operations, but then you just suppress it with powerful bombing and hold them back. This requires keeping Bagram Airbase open until the end. Of course the press would ask repeatedly about it, but you have your whole administration refuse to answer on the legitimate grounds that it would jeopardize national security.

Biden did not coordinate with the Afghan National government or our allies. The plan above could have been communicated to them with instructions to also deny it. You keep the air operations suppressing the Taliban and keeping the Afghan army supplied until the very end when you have as many out as you can, and then turn Bagram over to the Afghans.

In my last Beef, I was also criticizing the Democrats for how poorly they handled Trump. They have a chance to improve on that in his post-presidency. Clearly, he should be the first ex=president indicted and sent to jail on a number of crimes. I also criticized them for flocking behind Biden. I must say it did not turn out to be the disaster I feared. This is a new Biden as Saturday Night Live recently showed with their witty lampoon featuring an old Biden talking to the new Biden. He is governing much more from the center left instead of from the center right, where he used to dwell.