Biden's Failure

 Biden's Failure by Don Purdum

Over the last six months, many have examined the political failures of the Biden administration, present company included. It’s a necessary function to understand the moment and the troubled times in which we live. Yet, we often fail to realize America’s founders built the country in troubled times. Trouble has been with us since July 4, 1776, and it will persist for hundreds more years.

Despite the challenges this country has endured, Americans always agreed on one principle — until recent times. It’s the very principle a powerful minority no longer accepts. Yet, it’s also the same principle causing the divisions, chaos, and uncertainties of today’s climate. If you want to know the root problem, it’s Washington’s lack of understanding regarding the meaning of “Rights.”

Biden’s Failure Is Built on This Lack of Understanding

In January, Biden’s problems began out of the gate. In truth, they really started in the summer of 2020 when then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden ceded the Democratic Party platform to the far Left. While many dismiss political views as a different way of using the government to help people, that’s the problem.

On December 15, America celebrated the 230th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. It’s arguably the most influential and profound document in the world’s history. It was the first time people formed any government under the pretense of restricting government and empowering people. The first seven of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights expressly tell the government what it cannot do. That’s a powerful thing. It’s the reason the Left doesn’t like the Supreme Court today — it stands in the way of expanding government influence.

The Founders believed people’s “rights” were embedded by restricting government power. Today’s Liberals and Progressives believe the government grants rights. That’s a complete repudiation of the Declaration of Independence, which explicitly declares God, not the government, bestows rights. It added the role of government is to ensure natural rights, as outlined later in the Bill of Rights, are never forsaken.

This lack of understanding is the root cause of all the challenges and divisions in America today.

Biden and Democrats Believe Government Grants Your Rights and Privileges

America’s founders concentrated on limiting what the government can do to us, not for us. Even though the courts caved to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Constitution didn’t change, but the way judges and justices interpreted it did. James Madison, the author of the Constitution, believed rights were purchased with freedom (of speech, religion, self-expression, the press, etc.), and the more “rights” the government creates, the more it expands, and freedom recedes.

Over the last six months, Biden has proposed a massive entitlement state in the mold of his heroes, FDR and LBJ. The more the government expands entitlements and the welfare state, the more dependent people become on government programs. These programs ultimately ruin personal responsibility and surrender rights to collective responsibility. That’s antithetical to the Constitution but aligns with socialist teaching.

The more the government gives away—healthcare, free college, child care, debt forgiveness, business subsidies, and on and on it goes—the more intrusive the government becomes.

Consider this — the government needs money so badly to pay for the Left’s agenda to take care of everyone from the cradle to the grave it’s willing to weaponize thousands of IRS agents to harass people by assuming they are guilty of cheating on their taxes without any evidence. That violates the Constitutional principle of innocence before being found guilty by a court.

What about Democrats’ desire to know every deposit or withdrawal over $600 from your bank account? The government has successfully convinced too many people that COVID mandates are needed to protect the collective against the individual. That’s never happened in US history — not even during the worst prior pandemic in 1918.

So, when you look at the details of the fights between the Left and Right – liberty is the context. The Constitution is the context. The future of America is the context.

Don Purdum, Independent Political Analyst