Biden: Malevolent or just incompetent?

One of the biggest questions of our time and one that historians will no doubt debate for years is the nature and motivations of the man sitting in the Oval Office, Joe Biden.

The whole argument might be academic, but the reality of his disastrous governance of our nation is painfully obvious in myriad ways. Whether it be runaway inflation, a looming banking crisis, loss of control of our southern border, soaring crime, going from energy independence to energy dependence, or an inept foreign policy that has emboldened foreign tyrants, Biden has brought our country down with breathtaking speed.

It’s no wonder that Biden’s approval is down to 38%, according to an AP-NORC poll released last week.

Through it all, Biden has displayed all of the arrogance and bluster for which he is infamous, and evidently considers himself the smartest man in the room. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once famously said, “The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense; he is always satisfied with himself.”

Of course, Napoleon passed from history long before Biden came along, but no doubt he had someone like Joe in mind when he uttered that famous phrase.

It’s bad enough when the man on top is incompetent or malevolent, but when a leader surrounds himself with people who are as feckless or even more so than he, you’ve got real trouble. Anyone who has ever been in a leadership position knows that your subordinates can make or break you, so you strive to appoint the best and brightest. Unfortunately, the opposite is true in the Biden administration, where expertise and intelligence has been thrown aside for diversity, equity and ideological rigidity.

Start with Vice President Kamala Harris, whose word salad interviews are comedy gold, who hasn’t been able to handle a single job handed to her, and couldn’t even explain the duties of her job to Stephen Colbert last week.

Her approval ratings, according to 538, are right down there with her boss at 38%. Harris was so bad in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race that she dropped out before the Iowa caucus. So, folks, not even the Democrats wanted her!

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, known as “Pothole Pete” when he was Mayor of South Bend, Ind., has presided over one transportation crisis after another, the latest being the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment.

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Pete is more famous for his absences from work than anything he’s accomplished, such as being on “paternal leave” while dozens of cargo ships with their rotting cargos were backed up at our West Coast ports.

Then there’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who thinks his job is to make the world safe for equity rather than defend America. He oversaw our disastrous retreat from Afghanistan and sat on his hands while a Chinese spy balloon overflew sensitive U.S. military installations, and then did nothing when a Russian pilot brought down one of our drones.

He is a perfect compliment to his counterpart at the State Department, Secretary Anthony Blinken, who waived sanctions on Iran to allow countries like Japan and Korea to buy their oil. Blinken is most known for playing “catch up” as American adversaries around the world take advantage of the power vacuum left by Biden’s inept foreign policy.

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The list goes on. There’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm who thinks regulating gas stoves out of existence is more important than producing American natural gas, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who has changed her policy statements on the banking crisis almost daily.

Of course, at the center is “the enforcer,” Attorney General Merrick Garland, who apparently thinks that parents at school board meetings are a larger threat than terrorists, a position that even the FBI wanted him to reconsider, according to a March 23^rd Washington Times article. The House of Representatives and their investigation of Garland’s weaponization of the federal justice system against conservatives should prove fruitful.

Of course, it all starts and ends with The Big Guy, President Joe Biden, who is doing his worst to ruin our lives through his ridiculous “woke” America-Last agenda.

Biden brings to mind another quote, this one by columnist and cultural critic H.L. Mencken, who wrote, “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.”

Yep, that’s Joe Biden in a nutshell.

Dwight Weidman is a resident of Greene Township and is a graduate of Shepherd University. He is retired from the United States Department of Defense, where his career included assignments In Europe, Asia, and Central America. He has been in leadership roles for the Republican Party in two states, most recently serving two terms as Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. He has been an Amateur Radio Operator since 1988, getting his first license in Germany, and is a past volunteer with both Navy and Army MARS, the Military Auxiliary Radio Service, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor. In his spare time, he dabbles in genealogy and foreign language study.

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Biden's motivation could be one of evil or stupidity