The State of Our Disunion: What Biden Should Say

By Blake Fleetwood, columnist, The Kennedy Beacon

By Blake Fleetwood, columnist, The Kennedy Beacon

Three issues are top of mind for Americans today – inflation, immigration, and international affairs. Below is what I wish President Joe Biden would say to us Thursday night when he addresses our fractured nation.

My fellow Americans,

I must begin with the facts about our declining empire.

For the last 40 years, we have been ruled by a neocon war party of Democrats and Republicans that has destroyed our middle class and supported the corporate takeover of Washington.

I know it because I have been part of this oligarchy. I supported many of their useless and expensive wars.  

I am not going to support these war-mongering fat cats any more. They have drained trillions of dollars from our economy that we can ill afford.

America cannot continue to be the world’s policeman. Waging endless wars abroad, we have neglected our own welfare. We don’t need 800 foreign military bases. We don’t need a military budget of $1.4 trillion, more than the next nine armies combined. Almost all of our foreign adventures over the last 60 years have backfired, made America more enemies, and resulted in less peace.

It’s time to unwind our empire. It’s time to come home and restore our country. 

Inflation

I want every American to know – I feel your pain. Prices on everything have doubled in the last few years – eggs, milk, bread, and things that you use every day. Lower-class and middle-class families spend on these necessities and get clobbered. Rich families benefit from inflation, which is still much too high. Mortgage rates have doubled, and your kids can’t afford a home with these high prices and astronomical interest rates. Rents have gone up. These high prices will not go away and will continue to rise.

My advisers tell me to say that the stock market is at an all-time high, but I know that is no help help most Americans – middle-class families, poor families, and struggling small businesspeople. There is massive inequality in this country. The wages of non-college graduates have gone down for the last 40 years.  

I confess that in the past I supported these high-spending neocon policies, but I can change and promise to trim the federal budget by reducing military spending. 

The Border

Of course, there is a crisis at our southern border. In the last month, Republicans and Democrats cobbled together the most onerous border bill in recent history. But Donald Trump decided to derail it for obvious political reasons. He doesn’t want it fixed because he wants chaos and a campaign issue to bash Democrats with.

So, I’m announcing a national state of emergency tonight. I’m closing the southern border completely, for the time being. We have let in eight million migrants. That is enough.

For the security of our nation, I will mobilize the military. I will send 50,000 troops to the border and empower them to arrest and send back all migrants who cross illegally. In the long run, this is the humane, compassionate thing to do. Migrants have been abused and tortured. If we send a clear message and restore order, we can end the exploitation and trafficking. No one will come to the border.

We have to take control of this dysfunctional horror show. 

Ukraine

I am going to tell the truth to the American people. The war in Ukraine is unsustainable and unwinnable. Russia is not going to retreat under any circumstances. Putin cannot survive politically if he loses this war. Four hundred thousand young men and women have already died. We all know this conflict will end, someday, in a negotiated settlement. Russia knows it, Ukraine knows it, and we know it. Wouldn’t it be better if it ended sooner rather than later when another 400,000 civilians would die?

We stopped Putin’s invasion of Kiev from the north, and now it’s time for a cease-fire, as Pope Francis has called for. Let things cool off for a while. This is a frozen conflict that does not need to be addressed with more deaths today. Putin is tired of this war and called for peace negotiations a few months ago. Let’s see what we can work out. 

We have many urgent needs at home that could use the $100 billion we plan to spend on weapons and aid to Ukraine.

The idea that Putin intends to invade all of Ukraine or Europe is bunkum. He couldn’t hold it even if he wanted to. This threat is fear-mongering, by a powerful, well-funded military-industrial complex that is making billions off this war and our other endless wars. 

In 2008, Russia launched a full-blown invasion of its next-door neighbor Georgia, demanding self-determination for the Russian-leaning areas of Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. The war lasted five days. Georgia agreed to give those areas autonomy, somewhat like Quebec in Canada.

The stakes in this escalating proxy war are simply too high. It is perfectly possible that, if losing in Ukraine, Putin will turn to tactical nuclear weapons. 

We have to change course radically or we will end up in the disaster that befalls all over-extended empires.

Blake Fleetwood was a reporter for The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Village Voice, The Atlantic, and Washington Monthly on a number of issues. Blake can be reached at jfleetwood@aol.com.