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(Zero Hedge)—The NY Times on Monday published an opinion piece by UPenn senior lecturer and Open Society Project senior fellow (!) Damon Linker titled “Why Is Biden Struggling? Because America Is Broken.”
And while it’s more or less a recap of what ZeroHedge readers have known for years, the essay provides a sobering dose of reality for the “You should really watch Rachel Maddow” types.
Seven months away from a rematch election pitting President Biden against former President Donald Trump, the incumbent is struggling. Mr. Biden suffers from persistently low approval ratings, he barely manages to tie Mr. Trump in national head-to-head polls and he lags behind the former president in most of the swing states where the election will be decided (despite some recent modestly encouraging movement in his direction).
The question is why. -NY Times
Biden’s defenders, and the administration itself, has chalked the president’s unpopularity up to “a failure of communication,” however Linker instead suggests “It’s usually wiser to listen to what voters are saying” (beyond the obvious concerns about the president’s age).
‘Too Numerous to List’
Citing a January 2021 essay in Tablet titled “Everything Is Broken,” and a follow-up essay by the same author, Alana Newhsouse, who wrote that “whole parts of American society were breaking down before our eyes,” Linker encapsulates why Americans are so pissed (h/t Dean Baker):
The examples are almost too numerous to list: a disastrous war in Iraq; a ruinous financial crisis followed by a decade of anemic growth when most of the new wealth went to those who were already well off; a shambolic response to the deadliest pandemic in a century; a humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan; rising prices and interest rates; skyrocketing levels of public and private debt; surging rates of homelessness and the spread of tent encampments in American cities; undocumented migrants streaming over the southern border; spiking rates of gun violence, mental illness, depression, addiction, suicide, chronic illness and obesity, coupled with a decline in life expectancy.
That’s an awful lot of failure over the past 20-odd years. Yet for the most part, the people who run our institutions have done very little to acknowledge or take responsibility for any of it, let alone undertake reforms that aim to fix what’s broken. -NYT
Linker then writes that the above is why “angry anti-establishment populism has become so prominent in our politics over the past decade,” which both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have capitalized on.
And Biden, a career politician, has been part of the problem (and therefore implicated in these abject societal failures), and is “badly out of step with the national mood, speaking a language very far removed from the talk of a broken country that suffuses Mr. Trump’s meandering and often unhinged remarks on the subject.” (gotta get that shot in!)
That leaves Mr. Biden as the lone institutionalist defender of the status quo surrounded by a small army of brokenists looking for support from an electorate primed to respond to their more downcast message.
Linker suggests that in order to recover, Biden ‘stop being so upbeat’ – about the economy in particular, and stop making the election about how awful Trump is. Biden “should admit Washington has gotten a lot of things wrong over the past two decades and sound unhappy about and humbled by it.”
Further, Biden “could make the argument that all governments make mistakes because they are run by fallible human beings — but also point out that elected representatives in a democracy should be up front about error and resolve to learn from mistakes so that they avoid them in the future.”
“Just acknowledging how much in America is broken could generate a lot of good will from otherwise skeptical and dismissive voters,” Linker suggests.
Let’s see how that goes.
‘Merely Coincidental’: Secular Scientist Work Overtime to Explain Away the Miracles of Christ
by Harbingers Daily
Was the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish a little less than miraculous? Well, that’s what a group of scientists are claiming in a recent paper published in a scientific journal. Instead of a supernatural provision by the Lord, they claim the feeding…
Google Hosts Party for Democratic Operatives Plotting To ‘Resist the Republican Agenda’
by Free Beacon
The resistance’s bar tab is on Google. Priorities USA, a top Democratic super PAC with an affiliated dark money group, is convening a summit of left-wing digital activists on Wednesday afternoon to deliver a post-mortem on Vice President Kamala Harris’s election loss and strategize how to “resist the Republican agenda,”…
“The Correction Before the Surge”: Why Gold and Silver’s Future Is Brighter Than Ever
by Sponsored Post
It was long overdue by most estimates. Precious metals prices have been steadily rising for far longer than even the …
Ukraine Denies Reports From Think Tank That It Is Months Away From Developing a Nuclear Weapon
by Natural News
Ukraine has denied reports suggesting it could develop a nuclear weapon soon, following claims by a Ukrainian military think tank. The report, published by the Ukrainian think tank and nongovernmental organization the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, claimed that Kyiv could use spent nuclear fuel from its remaining…
Alex Jones Reveals Elon Musk Saved Infowars From Being Sold to The Onion
by End Times Headlines
Alex Jones has declared ‘the cavalry is here’ as attorneys for Elon Musk’s X jumped in to help put a temporary pause on the sale of his controversial Infowars to The Onion. The satirical news publication said the bid was sanctioned by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary victims who…
FBI Whistleblower Says FBI Intentionally Blocking Security Clearances for Trump Officials
by The Conservative Treehouse
It should not come as a surprise to see the same methods deployed against President Trump in 2024 that were used by the FBI in 2016. The difference is now that President Trump understands the full power of his office in the security clearance process and that he doesn’t need…
Pastor Greg Locke Burns Voodoo Doll He Claims Was Found on His Property
by End Times Headlines
Even amid ongoing warfare, we are called to stand firm on the Word of God. Pastor Greg Locke knows well the spiritual and physical attacks directed at him; he was recently targeted by a gunman. Now, he faces another spiritual assault, this time from someone attempting to place a curse…
Trump’s Incoming FCC Chief Already Putting Target on Big Tech ‘Censorship Cartel’
by WND
Social media companies have become a “cartel” for suppressing information with which they disagree, and that agenda now is going to be getting the attention of Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. It was social media companies who played a role…
Sabotage: Two Undersea Internet Cables Connecting Four NATO Nations Were Severed
by Publius
Many in the international community are claiming sabotage as the only viable explanation for two fiber optic internet cables in the Baltic Sea being severed less than 24-hours apart. Fingers are being pointed at Russia as one of the the cables connected NATO nations Germany and Finland. The latter was…
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Orders Democrats to Immediately End Counting of Illegal Ballots
by Infowars
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ordered Democrats in several counties to immediately halt their unlawful counting of illegal ballots in the Senate race recount. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled before the election that mail-in ballots lacking formally required signatures or dates should not be included in official results….
22-Year-Old Woman With Depression Was Almost Euthanized, She Changed Her Mind Right Before She Was Killed
by Life News
Why do you oppose euthanasia, Wesley? If people want to die, we should help them die. No. And here’s an individual example explaining just one reason why. A deeply depressed woman was about to be lethally injected in the Netherlands — but changed her mind just in the nick of…
“Massive Breach”: T-Mobile Network Hacked by Chinese State Sponsored Intelligence
by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
(Zero Hedge)—Where’s John Legere in a pink t-shirt when you need him? Among the multiple stories over the last few weeks about Chinese intelligence and hackers either attempting to, or outright gaining access, to U.S. cell phone networks (with reports stating President Trump and his team were targeted), comes news…
Trump’s Idea to Shut Down Department of Education Gets High Five From Top Christian Evangelist
by WND
A priority for the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is to tackle the Deep State, the bureaucracy in Washington that is a self-perpetuating industry, to find what American taxpayers don’t need or want. And get rid of it. One of the targets he’s already identified is the Department of…
Experts Sound Alarm Over ‘Shocking’ Spike in Strokes Among ‘Healthy’ Young People
by Slay News
Health experts have issued a chilling warning to the public over a “shocking” spike in strokes among “healthy” young people. The “alarming” surge was identified in official UK government data. The data shows that recorded cases of deadly strokes skyrocketed in 2023 and continued soaring this year. In 2023/24, the…
