Team Biden lit the torch for his new administration on January 20th, 2021. His team cruised to victory, eclipsing a torn, tattered, scarred, scared, angry, and vengeful regime. And then Team Biden just kept on going.
In the winner’s circle, the gold medal was presented to Team Biden: a battered and wounded country, still writhing in the throes of a violent insurrection; a country suffering from a global pandemic that had already claimed over 800,000 lives, disrupting families, households, travel, and businesses; a faltering economy teetering on the edge of recession; unemployment at all-time highs; wages stagnating; inflation on the rise; infrastructure crumbling, and over 300 million Americans clamoring for a brighter and more secure future. The previous administration only grudgingly passed the torch after claiming the election was rife with fraud and rigged from the start (it wasn’t); initiating over 60 legal challenges (which failed), and, in their final Hail Mary pass, attempted to overthrow the government, a virtual coup d’état, implemented by armed and violent insurrectionists and Team Trump supporters who stormed the United States Capitol, threatening to kill various member of Congress, to include the sitting Vice President (who did the right thing by putting the Constitution over party, as it should be). They were, as history now reflects, fortunately – and wildly – unsuccessful.
The medal – with all accompanying challenges and obstacles – was accepted by Team Biden.
In the ensuing three and half year marathon, Team Biden accomplished what few other administrations have. Inflation curbed (hovering around 3%), wages increased (by 4.7%, higher than the rate of inflation), unemployment at record lows (currently around 4%), and job expansion and new business startups at record highs.
Legislation passed, most with bipartisan support:
- The American Rescue Plan Act: made payments to people in the low-to-medium income range for basic needs; extended unemployment benefits.
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: to fund infrastructure projects across the country.
- The Pact Act: expansion of veteran health care and benefits for veteran’s exposed to toxins caused by burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances.
- Juneteenth National Independence Day Act: established June 19th as a federal holiday, commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.
- Gun Safety Bill: provides incentives for states to pass red flag laws, removing weapons from people determined to be a threat to themselves or others; prevents domestic abusers from owning guns (although this portion of the law was recently overturned by SCOTUS, with a decision that determined domestic abusers did, in fact, have a legal right to own weapons).
- The Chips and Science Act of 2022: provides funding for manufacturing semiconductor chips in the U.S.
- The Inflation Reduction Act: package aims to reduce the federal deficit, promote production, limit drug costs, reduce greenhouse emissions, promote energy technology, increase taxes on certain levels of income and businesses, fund the hiring of additional IRS agents and modernize IRS tech, and cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare recipients.
- Support for Ukraine: the U.S. continues to provide bipartisan support and funding for the country of Ukraine, invaded by Russia in February of 2022.
- Other: revitalized our deteriorating relationships across the globe, strengthened and expanded NATO, and re-joined the Paris Climate Agreement to help fight climate change.
And that’s just the beginning.
President Biden, an incredibly successful 81-year old politician has put country over ego. Seeing no easy path to victory due to his aging body beginning to rebel against him, Biden gracefully bowed out of the race for the presidential nomination and passed the baton to Team Harris.
Team Harris is young, energetic, and running on fresh legs. They make the elderly man opposing them in the race look, well, pitifully old. A man who seems unable to stop himself from living in the past, repeating the same angry vitriol since losing the 2020 election. A man whose diminishing mental capacity becomes more obvious with every speech as he wanders off into a storyline only he can follow. He is in obvious decline, and in light of the new team in the race, is losing ground quicky. He may wish to think about stepping down himself but that leaves his choice of his running mate – an unequivocally abysmal choice to pass a baton to. Team Trump chose a man who has, in just a few short weeks, easily aliened half of this country’s population – women. But I digress – that’s another story for another day.
Team Harris, however, is exactly what this country needs. A new team that reflects what most Americans want: freedom to make their own healthcare choices; equality regardless of skin color, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation; strengthening the middle class; freedom to worship, or not, as each chooses; safety from the escalating epidemic of gun violence; immigration reform and border control done properly, through legislation; workplace safety protections; and scientifically based environmental and climate change initiatives, just for starters. In other words, the right to live and breathe free.
Team Harris is growing in support exponentially faster than anyone imagined. And Team Trump is in freefall, faltering, losing speed, dragging and tripping over their own feet. They are unable to compete against their young, vibrant, progressive and energetic competition, and they know it. Hence the new sport of mudslinging they’ve taken up. Switching sports is all they have left and even that, with their aching, aging bodies and muscle fatigue, doesn’t seem to be having an effect since they are incapable of slinging much of anything very far, missing their mark every time.
This marathon is virtually over – only the final sprint to the finish line remains. And it appears Team Harris is now lapping Team Trump.
Let the games begin!
~jwb~
