Fareed Zakaria’s Criticism Far Too Kind to the Biden-Harris Wrecking Machine
The [Democrat’s] 1st big error was the Biden-administration’s blindness to the collapse of the immigration system and chaos at the border. An asylum system meant for a small number of persecuted individuals was being used by millions to gain legal entry. Liberals branded anyone protesting as heartless and racist [thereby] missing a massive shift in public opinion. [Their 2nd error was] misuse of law to punish Trump. The most egregious was Alvin Bragg’s [case] in NY [that even he had once declined, but was reportedly pressured by the Left into pursuing. Lawfare turned Trump from a loser into a victor. [Their 3rd mistake was their “identity-politics” that] judges people by the colour of their skin rather than the content of their character. [That is] deeply illiberal. … [However,] liberals cannot achieve liberal goals by illiberal means.
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Nov. 10, 2024
Well, it appears that at least one “liberal” (Democrat) has mustered a bit of common sense about the dreadful last 4 Biden-Harris years. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria (Harvard Ph.D., Political Science) actually calls out (some of) the massive “mistakes” of the Biden-Harris administration. However, despite his apparent concessions to common sense, he did not manage to identify everything in 4 disastrous Biden-Harris years and did not manage to formulate the nature of these Biden-Harris disasters correctly. Fareed’s formulations are far too kind to the deliberate Biden-Harris leftist wrecking machine. And it is too bad that he did not speak up more during the deliberate disasters.
First, Fareed, apparently buying into the false Democrat talking point that although the economy is actually good but it feels bad to the peasants, failed to mention the Biden-Harris failure to own up to its role in stoking the 40-year-high in inflation that did so much damage to poor Americans. That is, the Biden-Harris administration’s claim that inflation has come down from its 40-year highs near 9% fails to take account of the fact that even if inflation this year is only about 3%, that is still 3% added onto the higher 9% inflation of the previous years. In brief, the cumulative inflation over Biden’s term is “up over 19.4% [in Biden’s] three-plus years”, much higher than the 1.4% when Trump left office. The peasant’s feeling that they are still suffering, not felt in Oprah’s mansions or the Messiah’s Martha’s Vineyard, is quite real. The fact that Biden had to admit that his “Inflation Reduction Act” was really not about reducing inflation but was a “downpayment” on the far Left’s “Green New Deal” adds insult to injury. No wonder cumulative inflation under Biden is still high!
Second, Fareed is incorrect that the Biden-Harris administration was “blind” to the “collapse of the immigration system and chaos at the [southern] border”. Any 9th grader could see the problem on the nightly local television news. The Biden-Harris administration deliberately opened the southern border because they believed most of the needy new people flooding into the country will eventually vote for Democrats—an act of astonishing irresponsibility and selfishness. Thus, Fareed is not correct that “An asylum system meant for a small number of persecuted individuals was being used by millions to gain legal entry”—as if the “millions” of illegals caused the problem. In fact, the asylum system designed for a small number of persecuted people was being used by the Biden administration to import more future Democrats. Fareed displaces the blame from the Biden-Harris administration onto the illegals flooding into the country (placing the blame on the poor immigrants that actually belongs on irresponsible selfish Democrats). The flood of illegals wouldn’t even be at the border but for Biden-Harris administration.
Third, Fareed is wrong that the Democrat’s 2nd error was the “misuse of law to punish Trump” because “Lawfare turned Trump from being a loser into a victor.” That suggests that Democrat lawfare against Trump might be acceptable if it had worked (keeping Trump out of office). The problem with the Democrat’s Stalinist misuse of the law is not that it ended up helping Trump. The real problem is that it was wrong on the law and is the sort of thing fascists and dictators do in banana republics.
Fourth, Fareed is misleading when he only calls out the absurd Trump verdict in the NY Bragg trial, as if the rest were legally sound. In fact, all of the Trump indictments have been heavily criticized by leading liberal legal scholars for using novel interpretations of the law to “Get Trump”. The same can be said of the absurd civil rape case and the absurd judgment of $5 million for sexual assault and $83 million for defaming the alleged victim who cannot even remember the year that the assault allegedly happened and had already freely stated to Axios that Trump had committed no crime against her. Try convicting a Democrat in NY when the victim cannot remember the year and had already freely stated on television that no crime had occurred! The law is not meant to be used to “get” people, especially political opponents, but that is precisely what the Democrats have used it for. Wait until this is done to them and then sit back and wait for the squealing to start.
Fifth, Fareed’s remark on the 3rd Democrat mistake, their embrace of “identity-politics”, that one cannot achieve liberal goals by illiberal means, may seem closer to the mark, but what he should have said is that one should not try to achieve liberal goals by illiberal “means” (dividing people into racial, etc., categories). Fareed here criticizes “identity-politics” as a “means.” But it is not as if the “identity-politics” strategy would have been acceptable if it had succeeded.
What is the goal of “identity-politics”?
If one asks this question one generally only gets vague psychobabble. Wikipedia describes the goal of identity-politics thus: to achieve “greater self-determination and political freedom for marginalized peoples through understanding particular paradigms and lifestyle factors, and challenging externally-imposed characterizations and limitations, instead of organizing solely around status quo belief-systems or traditional party-affiliations.”
Really?
Since NAZI’s, White Supremacists and Christian nationalists are marginalized people, does the “identity-politics” movement promote their “greater self- determination”? Of course not. In fact, the “identity-politics” movement presupposes predominately (although often confused) leftist ideals of self-determination. “Identity-politics” literature promotes various leftist ideals of women, blacks, gays, etc. The term “identity-politics” originated with Combahee River Collective, a black feminist lesbian organization that supports a “socialist revolution”. Not surprisingly, a Berkeley.edu article on identity-politics features a picture of raised clenched fists.
The “identity-politics” movement has not merely erred, as Fareed suggests, as an illiberal tool but because it presupposes substantive illiberal goals. “Identity-politics” is actually another disguised form of radical leftism. When one looks beneath its saccharine slogans about the “self-determination” of marginalized people, one finds various radical leftist ideas where, ironically, certain identities (leftist) are privileged. Good luck if you don’t fit. A black gay conservative is not advised to attend an identity-politics convention.
Fareed’s summaries of the Democrat’s “mistakes” from his own “liberal” perspective conceals the real problem with the Democrat’s agenda. They have not made a few “mistakes” that cost them at the polls. The Democrats, especially the Biden-Harris administration, have deliberately pushed a destructive radical leftist assault on American “liberal” traditions. Thank God they have been severely punished for it.
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