One of the selling points for Joe Biden during the campaign was that he offered a return to normalcy, but “normalcy” was never defined.
Maybe it was that he spent the campaign hiding in his basement. Perhaps it was his predilection for doing things like challenging voters to push-up contests. More likely, it referred to his signature achievement of not being Donald Trump, which is all the Swamp really wanted.
While the phrase was mocked by those outside his campaign team and the legacy media (but I repeat myself), it should have been treated as a warning. What normalcy really meant was that the elites were poised to come roaring back and bring with them their goals of reshaping the nation, pushing false “equality” that most people oppose, and making sure Davos Man has adequate representation.
Now, the people who led voters to turn to Trump in 2016 — and 2020, even as he lost — are back in charge. As America enters just the third month of the Biden administration, it’s obvious that “normalcy” has indeed returned. Here are just a few examples of how Scranton Joe is making that point inescapable.
About Those Executive Orders
Bill Clinton signed 13 executive orders during his first 100 days in office, George W. Bush issued 11. Barack Obama upped the ante with 19 during his first 100 days. Trump upped it even more with 24.
Biden, perhaps confusing executive orders with the aforementioned push-up contest, signed 40 during roughly his first week in office. And he wasn’t done. When executive actions and memoranda are included, the total is now north of 50.
The Keystone Pipeline was canceled, though at least not for tweets it wrote while still a kid. Want equity, a thing no one besides Marxists realized was the goal of society until last summer? Biden has you covered. The Mexico City Policy was aborted. And while less harmful to children as they get to continue living, Biden also made sure to undo what Trump achieved on illegal immigration.
Goodbye, Cages. Welcome Back, Migrant Facilities for Children
Do you recall Obama holding kids in cages? Me neither. And now there’s definitely no crisis. That ended on January 21. Regardless, people shouldn’t yearn, no matter how much our leaders tell them to. This country is a racist cesspool and people should stay away. We don’t even pay a living wage. Speaking of which…
Student Loans and the Minimum Wage
LOL at the $15 minimum wage. On student loans, move on, unless your debt was from a school you probably didn’t attend. If you’ve made some other youthful mistakes, besides the excessive student loans, or even partaken in some legal activities, also move one, because there’s something you may have forgotten about the vice president.
Kamala Is a Cop
Remember when Harris bragged about smoking weed even though she loved locking people up for smoking weed?
She’s still into that. Is she extra-zealous if the weed is the bomb? We can’t know that, but when it comes to actual bombs, we do know one thing.
The Blob is Back
We’re once again Making Bombing Normal Again. For if there’s one thing we’ve come to accept as normal, it’s belligerence, whether foreign or domestic. And if there’s another thing we’ve come to expect, it’s that we need to be in the Middle East forever.
Above all, though, remember that swamp creatures never really go away. They just temporarily head to the private sector where they advise people on how to avoid government regulations before heading back to the swamp to create some new regulations.
The Band Is Back Together
Obama may be relegated to doing boomer podcasts with the Boss, but the band is back together. This time, though, their bank accounts are better padded than when they last roamed the White House. Not that Trump surrounded himself with paupers. Nor is it likely that post-administration offerings are going to leave his officials with empty bank accounts.
What Trump did, though, was attempt to bring in voices from outside the bureaucracy to implement his vision. His administration was not emblematic of the revolving door between D.C. and the private sector that so many use to enrich themselves. More important, before he was ever elected, Trump promised to be a traitor to his class.
When he won, he did something weird. He actually governed as he said he would. From the economy to peace deals to pro-life issues to criminal justice reform to deregulation, he didn’t do what D.C. defines as normal. It’s like no one told him that governing is normally more about paying lip service to your constituents than delivering.
Now, though, the neoliberals have returned to their seats of power. The Chamber of Commerce has reclaimed its rightful role. We’re bombing and detaining and spending while the media speaks truth to power – I mean prevents democracy from dying in darkness – I mean spins for its preferred political party.
They tried to warn us this would happen, but we didn’t listen. Instead, we’ve returned to normalcy, with a vengeance, but I’m not sure that’s what people, outside of the neocons who’ve gone home, were voting for.