So, imagine yourself standing there on a shoreline with a surfboard waiting for the much-touted big red wave to arrive. It was expected to surge in the evening of November 8, 2002, across the whole nation. You’re ready. As the hours pass, there is no big red wave. A small wave seems to have rolled on by, heading south-eastward. Enough time has passed for Republicans to study what happened. Looking back, many issues churned up the big red wave.
In the short time that Joe Biden took office in January, 2021, droves of migrants were illegally crossing the U.S. southern border. In April, 2021, the New York Times reported that over 170,000 migrants crossed the border and by October, more than 700,000 migrants were arrested. The majority were from Mexico followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Furthermore, these migrants were from countries with high infection rates and were not being tested for Covid-19 unless they had obvious symptoms.
In April, 2021, Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton issued a press release that he filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden Administration stating that President Biden was “encouraging the spread of COVID-19 at the border by allowing illegal aliens, potentially infected with COVID, to gather in a congregated care setting.”
Meanwhile, the first vaccines for Covid were authorized for Emergency Use Only, with full approval expected to be granted in December, 2021. However, given that a vaccine needs to go through proper testing that takes years, many people were hesitant. Others couldn’t get the vaccination fast enough and go back to a “normal life,” as if there was no pandemic.
When all Americans didn’t just dutifully take part in the experimental vaccine, Biden announced a vaccine mandate with a January, 2022, deadline. An upheaval among first responders, federal employees, and companies with more than 100 employees across the nation, led to mass resignations and lawsuits.
The Biden Administration also pressured the Food and Drug Administration to expedite full approval of the vaccine by August, 2021, failing to realize that only TIME was the true factor in safety and efficacy. When numerous healthcare professionals spoke out against the vaccines or spoke about other treatments, their posts and accounts were removed by social media. God forbid should there be dissenting opinions.
The United States was known for its freedom. The right to free speech was major. We no longer had it. This was no longer the land of the free. I sent a statement to a local newspaper on behalf of one of the “pioneers” of the mRNA technology who wanted all the facts about the vaccines to be published FIRST, so people could decide for themselves if they wanted to get the vaccine. My supporting statement was banned as well. If you didn’t go along with the Administration’s agenda, you were silenced. The Administration had become a dictatorship.
The red wave was cresting but wasn’t over. The next doozy came with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August, 2021. Although the withdrawal had been in progress for years, military experts interviewed were not pleased with the final handling of the situation. The scenes all over the news of Afghans crowding at the Kabul airport and trying to hang onto planes as they exited, were a disturbing memory.
Brad Bowman, a senior director with the military, told reporters, “The Pentagon should have made contingency plans to slow the Taliban’s advance and set up multiple evacuation points, especially ones NOT in the middle of Kabul.” USA Today confirmed there was “an apparent intelligence lapse with the primary focus on protecting U.S. troops over evacuating American citizens and Afghan allies, plus a lack of coordination with European allies, who felt betrayed by the speedy American exit.”
Sadly, veteran’s groups, refugee advocates and women’s rights organizations warned the White House of the threat by the Taliban. Democratic freedoms would be lost and Afghans who helped the U.S. military would be targeted and killed.
Furthermore, according to the Washington Free Beacon, the U.S. Department of State requires COVID tests before it allows foreign travelers to arrive in the United States, but it waived the requirement for over 100,000 who evacuated from Afghanistan because of the “extraordinary circumstances.” In November, 2021, as the Omicron variant was infecting many who were fully vaccinated, doubt over the vaccines was also spreading.
In February, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, I felt that the U.S.’s mishandling of the Afghanistan situation sent a message that we were weak and fueled Vladimir Putin’s confidence. “In the first half of 2022, gas prices had surged by more than 50 percent, fueled in large part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent surge in global oil prices,” according to Statista.com.
Next up, we have a quote from Politico.com, “The relentless spike in inflation has caused a steep drop in consumers’ confidence in the economy, sent President Joe Biden’s approval ratings tumbling and posed a major political threat to Democrats in the November congressional elections.” The last time inflation was this high was 1981.
It seems like Biden has been in office an awfully long time (pun intended). You would think that after all this, the Republican Party would have won both the House and Senate, and were expected to do so in a major sweep. They should have been a shoo-in. But then – the other shoe dropped – the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, 2022. Once that happened, I knew the red wave would BEGIN to dissipate, as the Republicans remained overly confident. But I wasn’t expecting such a fizzle.
Florida, on the other hand, indeed experienced a red wave with Ron DeSantis and other Republicans, and not because it is considered a peninsula. Whatever they did, they did it right. Literally right. Has all the in-fighting among Republicans made them their own worst enemy? Will DeSantis jump on a surfboard of his own and ride the red wave while it’s here? Can he cause a red wave to spread north and west across the U.S.? Perhaps.
The picture was very eye catching and it made lots of sense. Well done. The red wave never came in and two reasons were Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker. They were just not strong enough. The Democrats were very organized in those states.
Illegal immigrants are illegal! That used to mean something in the USA. But this current administration used a different set of rules. They bring crime, disease, drugs, and a poor class of people into this country. Not all of them, but too many. And again, they are illegal!
Vaccines were not tested long enough and they were forced or mandated to thousands of people who did not want to get the vaccine. It was awful for all of those people. Get the untested and potentially toxic shot or lose your job and your benefits. That is very similar to Germany in the mid-1930s and you mentioned a dictator. Sounds like it. If anyone questioned the vaccine or the mandate, they were censored or fired. How can that happen in a free democracy? Many have mysteriously died or have been injured after getting the shots. But the Democratic media refuses to even mention those stories.
Afghanistan was another embarrassment for this country. You mentioned so many reasons why and also the USA had just spent millions on a new military facility there, plus the USA left millions of dollars of new military equipment in that country. Other nations can buy that equipment and reproduce its technology.
The USA was independent on foreign oil just three years ago. But the new green deal has made the USA dependent on foreign oil that is expensive and of questionable quality. Recent prices to heat homes in the winter have doubled.
Roe vs Wade was leaked to the public on purpose to give the Democratic media a chance to anger the masses. It was unfair and insane. Republicans seem less organized than the Democrats who rule the Senate and the media. These are very hard and divided times. DeSantis does give half of the nation hope for a return to common sense and independence from foreign countries. He is a strong leader with an impressive resume. I hope that he gets his surfboard ready for some big red waves in ’24.
Overall I thought Oz and Walker did fairly well. Their opponents did not win by a landslide but in the end, they lost. When watching history shows of how Nazis took control of the newspapers back then, I see the same thing happening here now. There are only a few companies that own MANY newspapers and they all have to follow what the owners allow. They are very protective of Biden.
I didn’t even mention the weapons left behind in Afghanistan, but you’re right. Others have said it and it’s something that can be used against the U.S. later. I don’t see how anyone cannot notice the difference of prices with oil and inflation and not connect it with the Administration. Biden once said everything depends on who’s in charge of the country (when he wasn’t in office). Apparently, Americans are okay with all this. The Democrats did a good job by leaking Roe v. Wade at the perfect time.
I liked all the detail about the Biden Administration. Yes, he has done a lot of things that did not work out. However, I believe the reason that the great red wave did not happen is because a great many Americans were just as dissatisfied with the Trump administration. It’s time “We the People” put our heads together. We need a government that is of the People and For the People. I hope Michelle will add her great insight to how do we get there.
Once in a while I will hear the phrases “We the People” and “For the People,” and it reminds me of way back in the old days when the forefathers founded the Constitution. I’ve heard in more recent years there is a way to get candidates we want into office. One word. Vote. Apparently, the People have spoken.