Biden does the right thing in Afghanistan

Plus, why do Americans hate Democrat politicians?

There was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake near Khōst, Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border on the evening of June 21. Given the lack of proper infrastructure in the area, it was devastating, with at least 1,000 dead, according to press reports. President Biden expressed condolences for the Afghans and ordered USAID to assess options to help.

It would have been easy for Biden to say and do nothing. Our long commitment to help Afghanistan become a more modern (read: western) country, free of the Taliban’s boot, flushed itself down the toilet about a year ago due to Biden’s intransigence and failure to listen to his own generals.

Now the country is crumbling, and the earthquakes that pepper the region a few times every decade (due to the friction between the India and Eurasia tectonic plates, which produced the Himalayas, Karakoram, Pamir, and Hindu Kish mountain ranges—the tallest in the world), remain major killers.

I am glad that somewhere deep under the decades of political vampirism that animates Biden’s elderly frame, there exists a spark of real humanity. Helping Afghanistan is not necessarily a popular action. I honestly don’t know if anyone’s done a poll or focus group on it, but I viscerally feel the tug of “it’s their problem” in my own heart. Upon reflection, helping our enemies when they are suffering through no fault of anyone is just the right—the human, the Christian—thing to do.

And if I find out later that some staffer told Biden that this would be a politically good move and he did it for cynical reasons, or because it was on the script he was instructed to read, I’m still glad he did it, as long as we follow through and give the aid.

That leads me to another thought that I won’t dwell too long on, and it’s really an ink-blot question to many. Why do so many Americans hate Democrat politicians? I remember my sister was the biggest Obama fan when he ran in 2008, and she was over the moon when he won. By 2016, she was rather Trumpy, and extremely unhappy about her former hero.

I think this—and so many other reactions I’ve seen and others like Salena Zito have well documented and categorized—is largely because of one fault Democrats have. Progressives who hold to the ideal that power dynamics and persecution are to be praised and idolized find themselves on a merry-go-round of denouncement. One day, it’s woman power, and the next, TERFs are evil succubi. One day, Jews are expected to vote Democrat, and the next, Jews and Israel are the entire problem with the world.

One day, it’s overpopulation, and the next, it’s that there are too many young people refusing to have children, leaving the elderly with nobody to care for them. One day, we need to convert to green power, but nuclear power—the greenest, safest technology we possess—is taboo. One day, demographics is destiny, and the next, latinos who refuse to be known as “latinx” are xenophobic Trumpers.

Democrats can’t find a message they won’t themselves turn on and denounce. Voters catch on, and get tired of riding the merry-go-round. As bad as Republicans are (and they are VERY bad lately), they do not harbor a centuries-long ideal of eating their own and rewriting history to clean up the messes. Voters would rather look to one set of hypocrites and crooks than to deal with an incestuous bunch of fickle busybodies.

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