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The new administration of President Joe Biden has begun and with his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, officially brings in the most radical wing of the Democratic Party and the American left.
Joe Biden may have reached power, but he continues to govern in what many call “Trump’s America”: a highly polarized country, half of which opposes the new president and deeply distrusts the system in general, especially the electoral system.
Despite Biden’s call for unity, his policies propose more than economic dislocations, more than rampant progressivism; they propose to accentuate the division and tensions that have affected the country’s institutions and its legitimacy political system. Their proposals do not connect with their words, and this is a habit that must be analyzed.
There are five areas in which the Biden administration highlights its marked progressivism that will cost the nation’s social fabric as a whole as well as costing taxpayers a great deal.
Emboldening Black Lives Matter
“Antifa is an idea,” said now-President Biden during the presidential debates. Vice President Kamala Harris helped raise funds to bail out Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa vandals. Today, both organizations support the highest offices in the land. With this duo in the White House, BLM, an organization known for its criminal activities over the past year, will get just what Kamala Harris can offer – and has offered – to criminals.
Also, his criminal justice reform plan includes as proposals: legalizing marijuana, abolishing mandatory minimum sentences, ending the death penalty and solitary confinement, stopping private prisons, getting rid of cash bail, and increasing the president’s pardon powers to reduce sentences over twenty years.
Black Lives Matter can only benefit from lightening the justice system and partially defunding the police, as Biden has proposed.
Gender ideology
Two days before his inauguration as president, Biden has already made known what his position on gender ideology will be. The executive order that was signed on the same day of his inauguration obliges any institution that receives federal funding to accept biologically male athletes in women’s sports. In the order, the President stated that “it is the Administration’s policy to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Also, Biden wants to reverse the anti-abortion policies that former President Trump enacted. In this regard, NBC reported that “President-elect Joe Biden is willing to roll back several of the Trump administration’s most restrictive sexual and reproductive health policies, including limits on abortion.”
On the subject, the CEO of Planned Parenthood stated that there was “a lot of work to do to undo the damage over the last four years.”
Green New Deal
Public spending will not be increased with basic paternalism under Biden, but also under the “Green New Deal” idea pushed by radicals like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). During the campaign, the then-candidate stated that he “believes the Green New Deal is a crucial framework for attacking the climate challenges we face.”
His blueprint calls for “an accelerated investment of $2 trillion, with a plan to deploy those resources during his first term, putting us on an irreversible course to meet the ambitious climate progress that science demands.”
Biden’s plan is to achieve a decarbonized energy sector by 2035 and thus reach 100% of a clean economy, in addition to reaching zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Diplomacy
During the Obama Administration, Joe Biden -then Vice President- and Barack Obama, bombed seven countries (Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq) and relaxed tensions with the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Their regime change policy was one of the most catastrophic in recent times in terms of hostility.
According to a report by The Guardian based on figures from the Council on Foreign Relations, the USA dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone before the arrival of Donald Trump: that gives a worrying average of three bombs dropped every hour, around the clock, all year round.
Only hours after taking office, Biden sent a convoy to the northeast of Syria, to re-enter the “Paris Agreement” and the World Health Organization. On the subject of Venezuela, analysts assure that several sanctions that have been imposed in the past will be “reviewed.” For analyst Felix Arellano, negotiations between the Venezuelan government, Cuba, Russia, and China will take place, and sanctions will be reversed.
“To the extent that there are openings in the sanctions, Miraflores should make concessions towards a peaceful and democratic solution.” However, the improbability of reversing certain sanctions imposed by the Administration due to their complexity is also stressed.
Economy
El American has previously covered some of Joe Biden’s economic reforms. The president will seek to reverse the flat tax for people with an income over $1 million that Trump had set at 20% and restore it to 39.6%.
He also plans to increase the corporate income tax rate from 20% to 28%, create a 15% tax for companies that do not pay U.S. income tax, and report more than $100 million in net income in the country.
In addition, he plans to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and expand Medicaid which will be financed by this new set of taxes.
Ultimately, Joe Biden’s intention is to break and radically reverse everything that the Trump administration has done over the years, regardless of the outcome and simply trusting that everything will work out for the best.
Rafael Valera, Venezuelan, student of Political Science, political exile in São Paulo, Brazil since 2017 // Rafael Valera, venezolano, es estudiante de Ciencias Políticas y exiliado político en São Paulo, Brasil desde 2017