Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Get Out

 There is a lot of people in punditry wearing their Surprised Faces at how Joe Biden is basically implementing the consensus agenda of his political party. Despite the "politicians lie to get elected" trope, most politicians actually TRY to govern on the principles and policies that they campaigned on. Trump even tried to build his big, beautiful wall.

This led Ezra Klein to write about the "radicalism" of Joe Biden. The strongest argument is Klein's last. Biden is a true politician. He tries to understand what people want and give it to them. He also understands, as a veteran of Obama's White House, that the Washington GOP is no longer a reasonable negotiating partner. Biden is therefore crafting plans that appeal to broad majorities of Americans, including many Republican voters. This leads to funny ads like this one.

All of this is to say, I'm hopeful that Biden will simply walk away from Afghanistan. America cannot solve the problems of that benighted land and our continued presence simply drags out whatever outcome that will happen from happening. 

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