https://bsky.app/profile/mcopelov.bsky.social/post/3l7a5uk4vay2n
Dr. Copelovitch is correct; Afghanistan led to Biden’s dropping approval ratings. The lesson is not that we can never end a war, but that if we are placed in a situation like Afghanistan again, there needs to be a lot more focus on not just fighting the terrorists with guns but also cutting the financial support, rooting out and arresting white collar crime which supports terrorism around the world. We must sanction countries that do not cooperate into poverty. We did not do this. So we were fighting an essentially endless flow of weapons into the terrorists. That’s an impossible fight to win. If you cut off their supply of weapons and money, the fight becomes possible to win.
The Ls continued for Biden when Putin invaded Ukraine. We did not respond in time to prevent it, due to this “unity” bullshit and talking about how we were going to fix our “shithole country” and not concern ourselves with foreign matters. This did Biden no favors.
There were no major legislative accomplishments in his first two years. We did not pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and there was nothing to focus on health care. We passed a one-time bailout of suburban roads, and that’s about it. Biden’s caucus blocked him on passing necessary legislation. So there was no substantial legislative boost to his popularity in 2022 and he lost the primary.
Then, after over a year of Ukraine and Russia being in a similar situation to most of World War I’s western front, Hamas attacked Israel, and Israel’s defenses utterly failed. Netanyahu’s impeachment trial has been on hold ever since. Instead of evacuating civilians as the IDF then can remove Hamas’ weapons in search of a winning scenario, they have been bombing hospitals, schools, and apartments. Moving civilians form one refugee camp to another in a truly endless war. Afghanistan had an endgame scenario if we cut off financial supplies to the Taliban and were placed in Afghanistan, similar to how we have had troops in Germany since 1945. The government of Israel does not have a realistic plan to end the endless war in their region. It’s time to pull out. The War in Israel has been going on for almost 4 times as long as the United States defended Afghanistan from foreign terrorists. How is that not an endless war?
For Presidents to see their polling numbers go up, there has to be an event that causes the president’s approval to go up. Bush’s decisiveness after 9/11 is an obvious example. It’s very unusual, however, for a President to see their approval ratings go up significantly after declining during their first term. The media loved Reagan, and his approval climbed from 1982 until the Iran Contra affair came out. Most increases in popularity are very gradual. Biden has never had a single event that would lead the 60% of Americans who disapprove of his job to change our minds. It has been one major failure after another in foreign policy. There have been no major high-profile domestic victories, while there have been multiple times he has been left with mud on his face on the domestic front.
This is not the media’s fault. Biden has always been a mediocre politician. He has been a mediocre president. He has little charisma, and cares more about making Republicans happy than doing the right thing. That has always been his brand; it is what he ran on and how he has governed. Biden has emphatically stated that he does not identify as a New Deal Progressive Democrat. He was one of the first New Democrats elected to Congress. He has been this way since the 1970s. He was a mediocre Senator. Obama deliberately kept Biden away from foreign policy when he was President while also preventing Biden from filibustering Democratic bills in the name of “Unity,” leaving only one problem Senator, Joe Lieberman.
Biden is not an evil man; he lacks inherent political talent. He is not like Barack Obama, and he never has been.
Biden was able to win in 2020 because the New Deal vote was split between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. New Democrats flocked to Biden as he was their only candidate, and if they had another candidate, the vote would have been split four ways. It almost was with Michael Bloomberg, but he was taken out in the debate by Elizabeth Warren. Anyone we ran could have beaten COVID in the election, represented by Donald Trump. That is how Biden became president.