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Between Afghanistan and Immigration, Have We Ever Had a Less Competent President?
Townhall.com ^ | October 1, 2021 | Neil Patel

Posted on 10/01/2021 4:57:00 AM PDT by Kaslin

There's always press coverage about Republican mismanagement or Republicans getting into trouble governing as ideologues, but you don't hear much about the reverse. There's a lot to critique about Republicans, but for mismanagement and for blindly putting ideology above all else, resident Joe Biden may be the all-time champ.

Biden campaigned as a pragmatist who could bring stability and national unification. His inaugural address was all about these themes. America needs some level of national healing more than anything else. Americans can't go on at each other's throats. The country is falling apart.

Biden deserved praise for starting his presidency with a message of healing. I did an entire column to compliment him for it.

Since taking office, however, Biden has not made any effort to back up his pledge. He has governed not just as a wild-eyed ideologue but as an incompetent one, too. America is paying the price. If any Republican president tried to implement such an extremist agenda, the press would hammer it daily. The press likes Biden's left-wing policies, so they downplay the radical nature of what we are going through and cover the incompetence with a light touch, if at all.

On Afghanistan, pretty much all of America wanted out. What most Americans wanted, though, was a safe exit that considered America's long-term security needs. Biden's agenda was driven by the desire to have everything finished by the 20-year anniversary of 9/11. It's hard to imagine that symbolism drove the entire agenda for such an important matter, but looking at the facts, that's all you can conclude. Biden risked countless American lives and harmed long-term security, essentially for a photo op.

There's always press coverage about Republican mismanagement or Republicans getting into trouble governing as ideologues, but you don't hear much about the reverse. There's a lot to critique about Republicans, but for mismanagement and for blindly putting ideology above all else, resident Joe Biden may be the all-time champ.

Biden campaigned as a pragmatist who could bring stability and national unification. His inaugural address was all about these themes. America needs some level of national healing more than anything else. Americans can't go on at each other's throats. The country is falling apart.

Biden deserved praise for starting his presidency with a message of healing. I did an entire column to compliment him for it.

Since taking office, however, Biden has not made any effort to back up his pledge. He has governed not just as a wild-eyed ideologue but as an incompetent one, too. America is paying the price. If any Republican president tried to implement such an extremist agenda, the press would hammer it daily. The press likes Biden's left-wing policies, so they downplay the radical nature of what we are going through and cover the incompetence with a light touch, if at all.

On Afghanistan, pretty much all of America wanted out. What most Americans wanted, though, was a safe exit that considered America's long-term security needs. Biden's agenda was driven by the desire to have everything finished by the 20-year anniversary of 9/11. It's hard to imagine that symbolism drove the entire agenda for such an important matter, but looking at the facts, that's all you can conclude. Biden risked countless American lives and harmed long-term security, essentially for a photo op.

Trump responded to this crisis with a few policies that worked. Most prominent is the "Remain in Mexico" program, launched in January 2019, which required that asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for the entire duration of their immigration court proceedings. This policy eliminated the possibility of "catch and release," where migrants are able to escape into the interior of our country after claiming asylum. After implementing "Remain in Mexico" and a few other innovative policies, border enforcement operations dropped over 70% from their peak of 144,000 in May 2019. It wasn't perfect, but some form of order was restored at our southern border.

Biden came in and rescinded all these Trump policies. He did so on purely ideological grounds. That's his right as president, but he did it with no plan in place of his own. The results have been a complete mess. After dropping to a low of 17,000 monthly encounters under Trump, Border Patrol is back up to a record 200,000-plus border encounters per month under Biden.

To be clear, the U.S. government has no idea how many people are successfully crossing the border. That number has to be in the millions. The government only knows for sure how many people their agents deal with per month.

At the levels today, it's fair to say that the United States effectively has an open southern border. This means it's open season for gangs, terrorists and drug dealers to cross almost at will. The deadly fentanyl pouring into America is just one side effect of this insanity. Another side effect is average Americans are now more anti-immigrant than ever before. There are thousands of immigrants with amazing skills who want to come here. They can't. The legal immigration system is broken. Skilled immigrants can only come if indentured to an American company, and even then, our system is so difficult that many choose Canada or other places who vie for their skills. There is no appetite in America to fix this broken system because the insane border policies have driven many Americans to just want to say no to all of it.

It's not clear if Biden is too out of it to manage America effectively or if his staff is too ideological to make sound decisions or both. What is clear is America is suffering through amazing levels of self-inflicted crises on Joe Biden's watch.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: afghanwithdrawal; bidenadmin; residentbiden
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1 posted on 10/01/2021 4:57:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Yes. From 2008-2016.


2 posted on 10/01/2021 4:58:12 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: Kaslin

He’s not incompetent. He’s executing the plan precisely.


3 posted on 10/01/2021 5:01:22 AM PDT by bankwalker (groupthink kills ...)
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To: Kaslin

Incompetent def:
Lacking qualities necessary for effective conduct or action.
Inadequate for or unsuited to a particular purpose or application.
Not functioning properly in the body.

Joe’s job is to transform/dismantle the United States. At that he is highly competent.


4 posted on 10/01/2021 5:04:13 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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To: Kaslin

No mention of dementia?

No mention of two surgeries to remove parts of his brain?


5 posted on 10/01/2021 5:04:25 AM PDT by null and void (As usual, the GOP was either totally unprepared for the onslaught or complicit in the tyranny)
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To: bankwalker
He’s not incompetent. He’s executing the plan precisely.

Joe is just the patsy. They know exactly what they're doing: destroying the United States of America. And they're getting away with it.

6 posted on 10/01/2021 5:10:53 AM PDT by rarestia (Repeal the 17th Amendment and ratify Article the First to give the power back to the people!)
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To: rarestia
And they're getting away with it.

So far.

7 posted on 10/01/2021 5:13:57 AM PDT by null and void (As usual, the GOP was either totally unprepared for the onslaught or complicit in the tyranny)
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To: Kaslin

No. Any more questions?


8 posted on 10/01/2021 5:14:01 AM PDT by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.)
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To: null and void
You think that has to do with his dementia? My husband is 84 years old and he has dementia. His age is a factor and also the fact that he was a heavy beer drinker when he was younger.

On the other hand there are senior citizen who are 100 years old, or older that are sharp as can be.

9 posted on 10/01/2021 5:14:06 AM PDT by Kaslin (Joe Biden will never be my President, and neither will Kamala Harris)
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To: bankwalker
He’s not incompetent. He’s executing the plan precisely.

He’s both. He’s a lifelong teat sucking Washington bureaucrat because he’s too incompetent to be anything else. He’s a lifelong plagiarist and serial liar because that’s as good as it gets for him. He’s a pedophile, as well. It’s as if you went to the kiddie pool and chose the dirty old man staring at the prepubescent girls to be the president of the United States

10 posted on 10/01/2021 5:15:51 AM PDT by atc23 (The Matriarchal Society we embrace has led to masks and mandates and the cult of "safety")
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To: Kaslin

I think it’s intentional. The plan is to bring down the U.S. economically, militarily, culturally, and spiritually. Then we will be controllable, our wealth will have been redistributed, and the people at the top will have made a fortune before the fall.


11 posted on 10/01/2021 5:16:22 AM PDT by KittyKares (I miss President Trump!)
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To: Kaslin

There’s not even a close second.


12 posted on 10/01/2021 5:19:12 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is The I read in the papers.)
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To: Kaslin

There may be a more incompetent person in the US government.

That might be debatable.

There can not possibly be a person in the US government that is more despicable.

That us unquestionable.


13 posted on 10/01/2021 5:21:10 AM PDT by old curmudgeon (There is no situation so bad that the federal government can not make worse.)
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To: Kaslin

We’re the 100 year olds heavy beer drinkers ? Asking for a friend.


14 posted on 10/01/2021 5:23:44 AM PDT by HighSierra5 (The only way you know a commie is lying is when they open their pieholes.)
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To: Kaslin

He is demented and incompetent, yes, but moreover venal.


15 posted on 10/01/2021 5:23:52 AM PDT by alstewartfan ("She looks like she's 19 years old, sitting there like a lady with her legs crossed." Creepy Joe)
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It’s not incompetence, it’s intentional. Most Republicans are too naive to realize this.


16 posted on 10/01/2021 5:24:03 AM PDT by JonPreston (Q: Never have so many, been so wrong, so often)
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To: JonPreston
Most Republicans are too COMPROMIZED to realize this.
17 posted on 10/01/2021 5:27:08 AM PDT by SMARTY (Republics decline into democracies & democracies degenerate into despotisms. Aristotle)
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To: bankwalker

Yes, precisely. People are stuck on the words idiot, incompetence, moron, etc. He was put in to finish off America. That’s what they are doing using the Cloward-Piven strategy. The commies are in charge.


18 posted on 10/01/2021 5:27:11 AM PDT by PeachyKeen
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To: old curmudgeon

Between immigration, Afghanistan, the Keystone pipeline, the Russian pipeline, Chinese appeasement, runaway spending, Covid dictatorship, weaponization of the already biased FBI and DOJ, appointment of marxists to senior administration positions, embarrassing incoherence in very public appearance …


19 posted on 10/01/2021 5:27:38 AM PDT by littleharbour ("You take on the intel community they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you" C. Schumer)
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To: Kaslin
Biden deserved praise for starting his presidency with a message of healing

No he doesn't, he was just doing what Dems do: LYING IN ORDER TO FOOL THE STUPID!! (like the guy who wrote this article!)

20 posted on 10/01/2021 5:28:21 AM PDT by McBuff (To be, rather than to seem)
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