An Open Letter to Progressives
Mar 11, 2021 2020 Election
Joe Biden has been President for about 6 weeks now. Let’s set aside any issues of the legitimacy of the election for the moment. Your guy won, and is firmly ensconced in the White House. Your party has a slim majority in the House of Representatives, and with VP Harris’ tie-breaking vote, a 51-50 majority in the Senate. Now that you have control over these lawmaking vehicles, the question remains: Is this what you wanted to happen?
First, President Joe Biden. I nearly feel sorry for the guy. 43 days into office, and counting, and he still hasn’t had a press conference. For the first time in 100 years, the President has not delivered a State Of The Union Address, normally delivered by March 1. Opinions vary, but the prevailing theory is that Biden simply isn’t capable—not of handling the press corps, or of delivering a SOTU address. Upon taking office, President Biden, in spite of his party’s control of Congress, began pumping out Executive Orders at a pace never seen before. He’s over 50 EOs now, and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any. His EOs have ranged from closing the Keystone XL Pipeline project to affirming transgender rights (whatever they may be), to re-entering the Paris Accords, to reversing as many of former President Donald Trump’s policies as possible. I think most Democrats would agree with the last part of that statement, but I’m not sure of the rest. Do Democrats really want higher energy prices? Closing Keystone doesn’t prevent Canadian oil from getting to the Gulf Coast refineries—it just makes doing so more expensive, rougher on the environment, and riskier. Do Democrats really think the Paris Accords are a good thing? While not in the Accords, the US decreased CO2 emissions more than any other country. And I still do not see how allocating BILLIONS of US tax dollars to the Accord will impact weather or climate in any way. As to transgender rights: did women’s rights expire? Because the obvious impact of promoting transgender athletic participation and locker room/bathroom access sure seems to have an adverse effect on women. Is this what Democrats wanted to happen?
Now to Congress. You’re in slim control. The House has already passed two incredible pieces of legislation: a $1.9T ‘COVID Relief Bill’ and HR-1—an attempt to Federalize Election law. First, the COVID bill. Holy Cow. Less than 10%; of this bill is COVID relief! Over 90% of the expenditures are completely unrelated to COVID. $1.9T! Put that into perspective, it is exactly ½ of the 2019 tax receipts for the entire country for the entire year! And 2019 was the record year! This bill passed the House with zero GOP votes. It is being hammered in as a ‘budget reconciliation’ bill just to be subject to a simple majority vote, rather than the normal 60 vote threshold. HR-1 attempts to Federalize Presidential Election law. Note that the Constitution specifically states that the STATE legislatures are the sole responsibility for selecting their Electoral College delegates. This measure also passed the House with zero GOP yes votes, and President Biden says he will sign it when it hits his desk. Again, Democrats: is this what you wanted to happen? A 90% pork-laden ‘COVID relief bill’ and a bill that is likely unconstitutional, rammed thru on only a one-party vote?
If Democrats, Leftists, and Liberals are fine with this methodology to pass legislation, I am truly concerned with our government. Pushing thru legislation of such magnitude, that reportedly isn’t even popular with the people, using parliamentary tricks like ‘budget reconciliation’, just to avoid the normal 60 vote threshold, is decidedly dangerous. Remember the last four years? Where you yelled that Trump was destroying our republic and our democratic process? Trump never did this kind of despotic rule-breaking. It is entirely within the Democrat party that this is happening. Again: is this what you wanted?