Keelan: The ‘unifier’ Biden has not been unifying

By Don Keelan

Since Jan. 20, 2021, I have stayed away from writing about Washington and the new political landscape. There has been plenty of commentary fodder here in Vermont, especially from Burlington.

Nonetheless, waiting 10 months to comment on what transpired is a reasonable period to sit back and just observe. So far, what I have seen is not what was expected.

Don Keelan

For starters, the bedrock premise of the Biden administration was to unite the country as well as our allies. The Democrats saw this in Biden, which is the principal reason they rejected the divisiveness permeating presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s primary campaign. Unfortunately, we are now a more divided country, and our allies are even more suspicious of our support.

One hour after President Biden took office, he issued an executive order closing down a critical oil pipeline. Soon after that, he gave orders to cease land leases for oil development on federal lands. Almost overnight, the country went from the world’s leading oil and gas producer to one dependent on foreign oil: a direct result is a rise in Arlington’s Stewarts’ gasoline prices from $2.19 a gallon last January to $4.41 today. Moreover, thousands of oil and gas workers are out of work, so much for bringing the oil industry workers “under the tent.”

Secondly, Americans living along the southern border hoped to have their anxiety eliminated with the institution of a new immigration policy. It never materialized. If anything, border issues have worsened. Witnessing 15,000 Haitians camping under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, along with hundreds of thousands of others crossing the border, does very little to relieve anxiety.

If anyone is under the illusion that the border will get better, forget it. The Justice Department talks about $450,000 settlement payments (possibly up to a million dollars per family) for children who crossed the border illegally in 2018 and were separated from their parents. This financial settlement could incentivize tens of thousands more to dash to the border. The millions of citizens in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California who supported the Biden promise must feel betrayed.

And speaking about being betrayed, our UK, French, German and other allies have still not recovered from the August debacle in Afghanistan when the US, under cover of darkness, pulled its troops out of the country without ever informing our allies. Not exactly rebuilding, as promised, our relationships fractured by Biden’s predecessor.

Nor did it help to seriously alienate the French by going behind their back and making a submarine deal with Australia. France will lose out on a $60 billion transaction. Even Mr. Biden called his approach “clumsy.”

The biggest disappointment in ending the country’s divisiveness is down the street from the White House. Congress needs help, and with President Biden’s 40 plus years working there, surely, he would bring us together and quickly. Not the case. Congress is even more divided. Furthermore, the President’s own party has now created so much dissension, led by Senator Sanders, that even Mr. Biden must feel he promised too much.

The Thursday before his recent European trip, Mr. Biden went to his Democratic party members at the Capitol to beg them for the legislation he needed to convince the allies that he was in command. He received nothing. This omission was not lost on Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping; they didn’t bother to travel to Italy and Scotland’s G-20 or Climate summits.

As if the country hasn’t seen enough division, the Democratic Party is split. And we still have climate control mandates, inflation, and the Jan. 4, 2022 vaccine mandate. So where is the unification we were promised this time last year?

Don Keelan writes a bi-weekly column and lives in Arlington, Vermont.

Image courtesy of The White House

2 thoughts on “Keelan: The ‘unifier’ Biden has not been unifying

  1. Don’s headline is being far too kind by describing Biden’s performance as only failing to unify……During his first ten months in office, President Biden has not only failed to unify, he has fumbled just about every issue he has handled as Don has clearly outlined……And when Biden fumbled, he consistently blamed someone else, if not completely denying that he even fumbled….This has been repeated time after time, after time.

    What NFL, college or even high school quarterback would still be playing after fumbling the ball as many times as Biden has?…….Answer: ZERO…….The fumbler would be permanently benched, if not fired……..A fate Biden and his Democrat team mates are going to face in the 2022 mid-term elections.

    The American people have already delivered this message to Biden through the polls and recent elections in Virginia, NJ, Minneapolis and elsewhere……They have spoken out loudly and clearly……They don’t like Biden’s repeated fumbling……Yet the President or his handlers, whoever is making decisions in the White House, are in denial on how the American people view the President…..They either don’t get it or they simply don’t care.

    If there are no very substantive changes, Biden and the Democrats will face an even worse outcome in the 2022 mid-term elections than is currently projected…….The American people are not stupid.

    • Good analogy Peter, fumbler in chief…or better yet and thief as he’s stolen
      so much that we had away. I’m sure D’s up for reelection are sweating after
      the thumping they took VA even bring in the big guns to support their carpetbagger for Governor.. the blame Trump theatrics apparently don’t outdo the failures and jackboots people see in the biden mis-administration..
      Hopefully the overreach and incompetence of the leftist party sours Independent voters on D’s for many years to come..

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