Remember a few months ago when every pundit from the NY Times to the Nation called Ukraine to do a ceasefire? Russia is now losing territory as Europe has allowed Ukraine to attack the Russian military. The rest of NATO has chosen to completely bypass the leadership of the United States, openly supporting Ukraine to do whatever is necessary within international law to win the war this year.
The reality is that Biden was telling the truth when he said, “Nothing will fundamentally change.” He was telling the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_q2LBA38NI
Over the last 8 years, we have seen the terrorists take over Afghanistan, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and almost 40,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza. The Trump/Biden administration is responsible for the withdrawal of Afghanistan; while the US has delivered weapons to Ukraine, we have limited what they can do with them, creating a war of attrition. We have failed to enforce international law in Gaza, which only feeds the terrorist’s narrative that the United States and Israel are enemies of Islam.
We have seen the ratcheting of border restrictions across the world as eVisas are becoming more common. The world is less free today than when Obama was President.
He also was telling the truth when he focused on how he would focus on working with people he disagreed with. This is not a bad statement, but it necessitates the follow-up question of how you will work with your allies. Will Biden prioritize working with ilk like McConnell, Netanyahu, Putin, and the Saud dynasty over working with allies like Warren, Macron, Scholz, and Trudeau? Back in 2015, that might have been seen as a silly question, but today, it is a question we must ask of every future candidate.
When you focus on how nothing will change, the question is, why vote for you? If someone wants to argue that well when Biden said that it was 2019 and the economy was good. But Trump had already laid the groundwork for the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
We need to focus on more than just being better than Trump. We need to reach for more.
I think Harris will win the election, and I think she will be fundamentally different from Biden. She does not talk about Israel on the campaign trail, and Tim Walz has openly criticized the way Netanyahu has conducted the war in Gaza. That means I believe that by January 20th, time is up for Netanyahu, which is good. Removing Netanyahu will obviously improve safety in Palestine, but also in Israel, as that will open the door to recognition of Palestine and a normalization of relations between Israel and its majority-Muslim neighbors. She cannot say it on the campaign trail because she is running for the incumbent party, but her vice presidential candidate makes it clear where she will go.
She could have chosen a conservative Democrat like Manchin or Sinema, a strategy similar to what Obama did in 2008, but she chose not to. She chose a fairly progressive Democrat the same age as her. She has chosen an ally who will strengthen the ticket. We have a former sexual assault prosecutor running alongside a former teacher. This is a ticket that is going to take the rights of children in Gaza and Ukraine seriously. This is a major departure from the policies of Trump/Biden/Blinken/Sullivan.
I hope I am right.