THE KIDS ARE RUNNING THE CLASSROOM:
Representative Ilhan Omar is notorious for equivocating between Hamas, Israel and the Taliban. Her Squadmate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called inconceivably for “ceasefire and de-escalation” (which would amount, of course, to surrender) in Israel. Their colleague Rashida Tlaib has taken the opportunity to demand that the US stop funding the Jewish nation, which she regards as an “apartheid” state. Venomous delusion of this caliber might be unsurprising if it were found scratched on a bathroom stall somewhere at a sleazy meet-up for skinheads. Issuing forth as it does in the form of press releases from high-profile young congresswomen, it represents a serious problem for the Democrats’ old guard. In a Gallup poll taken before the latest attack, significantly more Democrats supported Palestine (49 percent) than Israel (38 percent). Elder statesmen such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have typically courted Jewish support and at least equivocally defended Israel. But their voters increasingly wish they wouldn’t. Perhaps that’s why former president Obama, ever the careful reader of trends, has taken so long to say anything at all about the latest war.
In In the Loop, satirist Armando Iannucci’s send-up of hapless government officialdom, parliamentary advisor Judy Molloy observes that “they’re all kids in Washington. It’s like Bugsy Malone but with real guns.” By recklessly indulging the childish arrogance and flattering the confident ignorance of their drastically miseducated base, the American left has created a situation in which the kids really might soon be running the roost. That is what the Biden presidency has revealed. Aren’t you glad the adults are back in charge?
As Matthew Continetti of the Washington Free Beacon asked last year: Who’s In Charge?
Every time I speak to a conservative audience, I am asked who is really in charge in the White House. My answer has been that the president is in command. After all, institutions take on the character of their leaders. If all the White House has to offer is excuses, if decisions are made either slowly or randomly, if the communications team and the president and vice president seem to live on different planets, if incompetence and mismanagement appear throughout the government, it is because the chief executive allows it. No conspiracy is required to explain the ineptitude. This is Joe Biden we are talking about.
Lately, though, I have been having second thoughts. Not that Barack Obama or Ron Klain or Dr. Jill are running the show in secret. What I have been wondering, instead, is whether anyone is leading the government at all. There is no power, either overt or covert, in or behind the throne. The throne is empty.
Think of the economy, the border, and Ukraine. From time to time, Biden addresses these issues. He may even answer questions about them. The White House sends out press releases describing its latest initiatives. Vice President Harris or the second gentleman pops up somewhere to talk about all the good she and he are doing.
Yet each of these elements—the president, his staff, his spokesperson, his vice president, his policy—comes across as disconnected, discombobulated, as if each inhabits a separate sphere of activity. Whether because of Biden’s age, or his weekend trips to Delaware, or years of remote work, or lower-level staff turnover, or a painstakingly slow decision-making process, or ideological stubbornness, or a lack of a strategic plan, this administration drifts from crisis to crisis, and from one bad headline to the next. And nothing improves.
Ultimately though, we sorta-kinda know who is in charge: Obama’s Coming Fourth Term.