Note: Behind paywall.
“But none of that can or will happen if the president fuels the culture war this aggressively, this crudely, and this soon. You don’t get to unite the country by dividing it along these deep and inflammatory issues of identity.”
I was not surprised. Biden couldn’t be a healer. He sold his soul to the company store to gain office. As I wrote in mid-December of 2020:
A position with strategic potential is one full of opportunities for improved prospects. By contrast, a strategic trap is where every path leads to a worse outcome. Although the American liberals seem poised to restart all projects abandoned in 2016, in reality, they may be leaving themselves with nowhere to go. …
The big dilemma of the Democrats is they can’t compete with China while simultaneously satisfying the Woke and populist halves of the public. The objective of their foreign and domestic interests run counter to each other. There is no direction in which they can advance from their position that does not expose them to risk from another. This leaves them in a trap from which there is little chance of easy escape. The year 2020 may be remembered as a time when liberal politicians sought tactical advantage without regard to strategic continuity.
It is beginning to dawn on even Biden supporters that there’s nowhere for him to go and there are hostiles all around. The Los Angeles Review of Books rhetorically asks: “Now that Joe Biden has won his restoration candidacy, where do we go from here? Should we rebuild the system the way we left it?”
That won’t work because there’s not enough money to do it. He’s stuck good and tight. The consequences of being too weak to govern from the center is that we will pass directly from one crisis to another without even a respite.
Biden was carried into office by a coalition to whom he is now indebted. They lent him everything, including his media personality. But what is loaned can be repossessed.
Let the healing begin.