Biden’s superb record
There was a time not long ago when America was at the nadir of world climate change effectiveness. Donald Trump put us there. Between golf games Trump saw to it that the US joined the handful of the shabbiest, most global warming-denying nations on earth by withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord. As with everything, Trump cares nothing one way or the other about climate change. Trump withdrew from the Paris accord for the cheers and plaudits he knew he’d receive from the dumbest and greediest and most ignorant people in the country, the drooling MAGA cult and the fossil fuel industry.
In his race to forever link his administration with the works of evil, Trump set the fight in the United States to save the earth back 20 years. In four years Trump did more to destroy the earth than any other president. Joe Biden, by contrast, has done more than any other US president to save it.
To date the Biden administration has taken some sixty major steps to reverse global warming. He rejoined the Paris accord, implemented a plan with major automakers to make 50% of new vehicle sales zero emissions by 2030, revoked the Keystone XL permit, accelerated the review process for clean energy on federal lands, made available to industry 8.25 billion dollars in clean energy transmission loans, restored state and tribal authority to block pipeline projects, instituted programs to plant 1.2 billion new trees over the next 10 years through the REPLANT Act, and many other measures.
Of all the issues facing us today, the fight against global warming is second to none. If we destroy our planet it won’t matter if we do so as a democracy or a dictatorship, a nation of laws or a nation in chaos, a beacon of personal liberty or a slave camp. Our position on the Israeli-Gaza conflict won’t matter to history if there is no one left to record it.
As if Biden’s sterling record on climate change isn’t enough, Biden is also the most effective president in modern times. Under Joe Biden’s leadership the United States has sponsored more positive legislation than at any other time. He has done so despite a Republican Congress full of fools and crybabies. Inflation is declining, jobs are increasing, for the first time in decades the US has an effective infrastructure strategy, the stock market is at its most healthy and Covid is under control.
Even so, if Biden were mediocre in all other respects, his record on climate change would still make him the obvious choice in November. How fortunate are we that we can vote for Joe Biden in November, not because he is the lesser of two evils, but because he is the best choice we have had in our lifetime. Had the Republicans managed to mount a solid, capable candidate, Joe Biden would still be the better choice. In four years he has established his undisputed supremacy.
In 1932 the German people were given a choice between a weak, ineffectual Weimar government and a government under Adolf Hitler. They chose Weimar — barely — but left enough room for Hitler to ultimately manoeuvre his way into power.
Today the alternative to our latter day Hitler is far more qualifIed than the one Germany was given. The right choice today is far more obvious. What’s more, Germans made the right choice without the advantage of the cautionary tale Hitler ultimately bequeathed them. So we are without even their excuse for failure this time. Joe Biden isn’t just the best of two poor choices, he is the best of any choice. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.