“About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; . . .” — Thomas Jefferson, first inaugural address, 1801
Medal of Freedom recipient Joseph Biden’s last speech as Vice President represents the departing administration, as he said. He gave this speech at the annual gathering of the Old Boy Network in Davos, Switzerland: the World Economic Forum.
He was not talking about Trump’s victory, he said. But he was clearly talking about the grassroots political forces that elected Trump and pulled the UK out of the EU.
He called for a defense of the “liberal international order.” He perceives that it is under attack.
He equated this liberal international order with democracy. Sorry, Joe, but democracy has had enough of the New World Order that Davos represents. Democracy has begun to revert to national self-determination. The dreaded words, national sovereignty, now have the votes. This scares attendees at Davos.
Biden sees that nationalism is growing more powerful at the expense of the NWO. He is correct in this assessment.
He blamed free trade for the decline of the middle class. This is an astounding admission — one for which there is no clear-cut economic evidence. He worries about shrinking demand for low-skilled laborers. But this process has been going on for 200 years. Education raises individual wealth. Parents have known this for 4,000 years.
A rising tide raises all ships. This is the free market’s gift to the world, including low-output workers who own smartphones all over the world. But Biden still thinks the welfare state is needed to make the free market fair.
He has no answer to the employment effects of robotics. He says that “we” must somehow intervene to help everyone’s standard of living to rise. But this is what the free market has done for two centuries.
He wants “basic protection for workers.” This means higher taxes on productive people. He wants everyone “to pay his fair share.” It’s the same old Progressive line for a century. It never ends. They never think the state has done enough to redistribute wealth.
Tax and spend: they have no other message.
At about 18 minutes, he warns against “political small mindedness.” He is talking about nationalism. He is talking about immigration. He says we should not talk about walls. We must maintain the world of Bretton Woods and the United Nations.
Then he blames China, Iran, and Russia. He blames Russia most of all. This is the bottom line. Russia is “illiberal.” Russia is targeting Europe. Russia is trying to “collapse the liberal international order.”
But what is his answer? What are the specifics? He has none. We must “invest in our democratic alliances.” We must fight for the European Union. In short, more of the same. But the same is visibly falling apart. The same is clearly unable to deal with the Islamic invasion.
This has been the Party Line since the Council on Foreign Relations was created in 1921.
(For the rest of my article, click the link.)
