The Staggering Cynicism of Biden’s Border Policy – Joe Biden ran in 2020 as a caring, competent candidate when compared with Donald J. Trump.
One of Biden’s big bugaboos was the purportedly egregious way that the Trump Administration handled the contentious issue of immigration and border security, particularly along America’s southwestern border with Mexico.
One of primary points of dissension between the Democratic Party and Republican Party on the border was the Trump Administration decision to station U.S. military forces along the border to better stunt the unwanted flow of illegal migration from Latin American through America’s porous southwestern border.
The Democrats have ceaselessly berated the Republicans for their purportedly uncaring and racist immigration and border security policies. It has been one of the few consistent criticisms that the Democrats have carried over from the moment Donald Trump made his provocative announcement speech in 2016 all the way through to the present moment.
Alas, consistency and Democrats go together like Joe Biden and cogency.
Joe Biden Bashes the Border
You see, after six years of ripping anyone who would dare try to impose some degree of order along the southwestern border, President Joe Biden is reducing himself to simply copying the wildly successful (though controversial) border security policies of his predecessor.
Specifically, Biden is “contemplating” (meaning he will do this) deploying 1,500 active-duty U.S. military personnel along the southwestern border to augment the Border Security forces who have been consistently under-resourced, constrained, and abused by the vicious partisans of the Biden Administration.
So, what changed?
Well, the situation at the border is deteriorating (and has been since Biden took office in January 2021). Everyone knows that Biden will have a more challenging time getting reelected without the threat of COVID-19 hanging over the country like a Damocles Sword. He has to do things to keep Mainstreet America happy, most of whom are displeased and concerned with the horribly insecure condition of the US-Mexico border.
Irrespective of whatever qualms Biden and the Democrats had about Trump’s similar border security policies, at this rate, they’re playing a basic numbers game: they need to staunch the flow of migration into the United States significantly—and long—enough to reassure voters that Biden has everything under control.
The Biden Administration isn’t serious about border security, though. They’re interested in cheap political tricks and temporary measures meant to constrain whatever policy advantages the Republicans may have going into the 2024 General Election.
For the Republican Party, their most likely candidate is former President Donald Trump (at this point, though my governor, Ron DeSantis, has a massive war chest and has yet to officially announce). His most significant policy advantage has been talking about the border. Whoever is the GOP nominee in 2024, though, border security will be one of their primary issue areas to exploit the perceived Biden weakness.
Biden and Clinton-esque Triangulation
Biden has already begun his Clinton-esque triangulation of popular Republican Party policies married to what he and his handlers believe to be Biden’s greater appeal.
By repackaging a handful of Trump-era policies, such as border security, Biden believes he will hold back the negative reactions that are bubbling up due to his lax immigration policies.
It just might work.
After all, this is not the first time Biden has reversed course in the run-up to an election to secure his exposed flanks.
Remember, Biden entered office waving his pen and phone around to enact a bevy of executive orders that essentially killed North America’s formerly robust fossil fuel industry. This, on top of the Ukraine War and knock-on effects from the COVID-19 shutdowns, helped to drive the overall price of energy up for the first time in a decade.
Biden enacted those policies out of ideological fealty to the extremist cult of Climate Change. Thanks to that, Americans were paying infinitely more at the pump in the first year-and-a-half under Biden than they ever did under Trump.
Yet, Biden began flooding the market with oil from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) months before the critical 2022 Midterm Elections. President Biden also started (somewhat) reversing course on his draconian anti-fossil fuel policies.
This wasn’t due to a change of heart on Biden’s part. It was merely to assuage concerns of twitchy moderate voters who were tired of paying more at the pump.
Biden’s gambit was successful.
He and his team deftly removed that issue from the forefront of Americans’ minds as the prices temporarily lowered. This made the voters fixate less on economic matters, where Republicans traditionally have an advantage and more on social issues—such as abortion—where Democrats have electoral advantages.
Biden’s Hard-Right Turn on the Border
For months, Biden has been raging about the situation at the border. Not because he wants to stop illegal immigration. He doesn’t. But because he and his team are aware of how significantly it weakens them heading into 2024. Vice-President Kamala Harris was tasked with cleaning up the situation over a year ago.
She failed.
Biden is now intervening directly. His solution is to replicate the much-maligned Trump strategy of child separation at the border plus maximum enforcement, augmented by the US military.
The Pentagon’s Deep State Hypocrisy
The Pentagon has remained mum on this matter.
This is strange since many of the same people running the Pentagon were also involved with US military policy under the Trump Administration.
These military bureaucrats were apoplectic over the notion of Trump deploying the US military to secure the Southwestern Border. Yet, none of these bureaucrats have resisted Biden’s calls to do the same.
Joe Biden Does His Best Trump Impression
The thing is that Trump’s border security program was effective.
If Biden replicates it, he too, will enjoy success. Sadly, it’s not a sincere policy commitment on his part. It is another cynical ploy designed to lull the ordinary American voter into complacency; to remove the serious issue of immigration and border security from the forefront of the national debate long enough to get Biden and the Democrats reelected.
If history is any judge, it’s going to work. Biden will manage to secure the border enough to buy his campaign precious time against what will likely be an unpopular Trump Campaign. Once reelected, Biden will pull back the troops and return his administration’s border and immigration policies to what they were before the 2024 Election began.
Biden is shamelessly playing ordinary voters. The GOP must highlight this and not let Biden and the Democrats get away with such skullduggery.
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A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
