Biden At Rock Bottom

And if the bedrock erodes, he could sink lower.

This is a disastrous time for President Biden, the Democrats and the nation.  The President is still reeling from bad foreign policy decisions he made over the summer, the Democratic Congress won't give him any relief in the form of infrastructure bills he can sign into law, and COVID continues to plague the country.  Democrats don't blame Republicans entirely for COVID either; they cite the administration's CDC guidelines as being too confusing and incomprehensible, and the administration has only just begun straightening out the booster mess it created for itself by having a start date for boosters that contradicted scientific reality.

I am extremely pessimistic.  Because while he's foundering, Donald Trump is convincing more and more Republicans that the Democrats did indeed steal the presidential election . . . and conspiracy theories about things such as the election, COVID, and left-wing terror groups are multiplying faster than rabbits.  Let me put it this way: This time in 1993 and in 2009, I was relieved to be living in an America where a Democrat was President and in which Democrats controlled Congress, we had just put a bad President named George Bush behind us, and the future looked bright, with a renewed interest in public policies that would make America a country worth living in.  This time now, I'm scared stiff about the future.  I'm anticipating a takeover of state and local offices by Trump supporters in the the off-year and midterm elections to come, the rigging of the electoral process to pave the way for a Trump comeback in 2024 and a final conflict between Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee (who may or may not be Biden) that will result in 45 (Trump was the 45th President) becoming 47 and our civil and constitutional rights being eighty-sixed.  But then Bill Clinton and Barack Obama didn't have to contend with twin crises like a pandemic and a alt-right movement.  Biden should be able to deal with both, but so far he's proven himself to be a late-twentieth-century man operating in an early-twenty-first century world. 

There's still time for President Biden to recover, though.  In fact, his recovery may have already begun and we don't know it yet.  Afghanistan is slowly receding from the news while the Biden administration continues diligently to get more Americans and Afghan allies out of that country.  The dustup with France over U.S. nuclear-submarine sales to Australia has been settled - "a misunderstanding among friends," as Napoleon once described tense U.S.-French relations during the Presidency of John Adams.  The Delta COVID variant is receding as more people get vaccinated.  (The jury's out on the immigration issue, though.)  Meanwhile, the January 6 select committee is finally showing some backbone - more on that later.  The big question mark is whether the President can get congressional Democrats to pass both of his infrastructure bills before the year is out and also get voting rights legislation meant to prevent a Republican rigging of the system passed as well.  And both of those tasks rest in the hands of West Virginia senator Joe Manchin (below), who balks at more spending on social programs but is pushing a voting-rights bill that he thinks he can get passed without having to abolish the filibuster.

See why I'm pessimistic?

Hopefully, Manchin will come to his senses soon enough.  And while I'm not going to say that I have a feeling he will - there's nothing to suggest that as of yet - the nightmare scenario that brings about second Trump Presidency and puts the workings of government in the hands of a reactionary cadre of white supremacists and unindicted insurrectionists should move him at least a millimeter tor two.  I just hope it won't be too late when it does.