Democrat Weakness
Half measures have become the preferred response of this administration to national and international challenges. We are going to engage in a diplomatic boycott of the Chinese Olympic Games to protest horrendous human rights abuses. Our athletes will still compete. Chinese minorities will still have their internal organs removed and sold on the open market.
A handful of diplomats, however, will stay home. China has responded by first saying that these diplomats weren't invited in the first place. Then, the Chinese leadership threatened severe retaliation for the uninvited guests not attending. In practical terms, of course, their absence makes little difference since the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus has already caused nation after nation to only send a skeleton staff to Olympic Village.
Meanwhile, Russia has amassed over a hundred thousand troops on the Ukraine border either to intimidate the Ukrainians or as a pre-positioning for an invasion. President Joe Biden responded by holding a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he threatened economic retaliation in the event of invasion. Put another way, he told Putin he wouldn't use American or NATO troops to defend Ukraine. That comes close to giving Putin the green light for the invasion. While he was doing that, however, at least one other NATO country began shipping weapons to the threatened country.
Biden seems to be banking on Putin's desire to complete a natural gas pipeline to Germany to bypass Ukraine and increase gas sales by Russia to the E.U. If Putin takes over Ukraine, however, he would be able to use the existing gas pipeline through that country to supply the E.U., while preventing Ukraine from siphoning off enough gas to supply its winter heating. Economic retaliation certainly has its limits.
Biden has also been ambiguous when it comes to Taiwan. Taiwan has become vital to our interests not only because it rests on a major trade route but also because it essentially controls the world's supply of high-end computer chips. China wants it for those very reasons. We, on the other hand, need it because it is a democracy and supplies us with chips necessary for building our vehicles. If Donald Trump were still president, there would be no question that we'd defend Taiwan with our military and blood. With Biden as president, however, our response to an invasion of Taiwan is uncertain — such uncertainty invites Chinese aggression.
On the domestic front, there is also a disturbing lack of certainty as to how the U.S. will handle challenges to law and order. Democrat leadership has decided that criminals should be released without requiring bail. They should also merely be slapped on the wrist if they steal less than $950. That has resulted in a series of snatch-and-grab robberies by mobs of people entering a store and stripping it bare. A few of these people have been arrested, but then they've been released, so they can continue on their crime spree.
Put bluntly, Democrat leaders have demonstrated they don't know how to count. Person after person is shoplifting just under $950 worth of goods and then descending on a new target the next day. Stores are closing down as they are being stripped bare. One guard was shot and killed as he was being interviewed concerning the string of robberies. Imagine what effect this change in the laws has
Imagine what effect this change in the laws has on young people. If the police wink at crimes under $950, then pre-teens will begin entering stores to haul off their own bundles of goods. Inner cities will hollow out as chain stores close down every establishment that falls to crime. Half measures have produced an horrific problem. Add to that the fact that the police regulate pawn shops but don't have any control over what gets sold online, and we're left with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods being sold on Ebay or by third-party vendors on Amazon. There's a real danger that such a system could result in economic collapse. Half measures produce systemic failures. Half measures are a recipe for disaster.
We are now also beginning to see half measures in other areas. Biden has been ordered by the courts to return to Trump's remain in Mexico immigration policy. Uncle Joe is slow walking back that policy. He also has recently begun auctioning new areas of the Gulf of Mexico for oil exploration. It appears he realizes that high gas prices may topple his government. The ramping up of production, however, is moving in slow motion because Biden hates oil. Half measures will insure the government falls.
Haughey is Senior Advisor of the Texas Republican County Chairman’s Association.