Welcome, 2023 – USA Gov Policy

2022 is in the rearview mirror, and for most, that didn’t happen soon enough.

It was the year that common sense and common decency were shunted aside by ideologues who saw the suffering they caused as irrelevant to their pursuit of Progressive goals. In affairs both foreign and domestic, on issues as broad as international affairs and as domestic as local school boards, absurd policies reigned supreme.

The Biden Administration pushed the fiction that alternative energy could replace fossil fuels. The assault on U.S. energy independence initiated an inflationary spiral that continues to cripple the world economy and bankrupt families, all without producing any benefit to the environment particularly since China, the world’s largest polluter, ignores the whole idea. The White House doubled down on irrational economics by spending profligately, on areas that produce no long-term benefits. The national debt has reached $31 Trillion, and consumer prices jumped to an absurd 9.1% hike.

2022 was the year in which lies reigned supreme. Despite clear, televised contrary evidence broadcast into homes every night, the President and his aides continue to insist that the U.S. Southern Border is under control. Unprecedented numbers of illegals literally storm across. In at least one instance, a horde of military-aged young males carrying the flag of their home nation aggressively attacked border patrol agents. Illegals rushed into southwestern states, leading local officials to declare an invasion and begging Washington for help, which never came. Human trafficking, fentanyl pushing criminals are the chief beneficiaries.

Lies have been the hallmark of 2022. The evidence that federal agencies conspired with social media outlets to warp the 2020 election is now clear, thanks to the unsealing of records following the Elon Musk takeover of Twitter. It is also clear that Rep. Adam Schiff utterly lied about “Russian Collusion,” yet he continues to remain unpunished.

As Russia prepared its invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration not only failed to take steps to dissuade it, it actually encouraged the illegal move when Biden bizarrely stated, on January 20, 2022, that he would tolerate “a little invasion.”

Lies were prominent in domestic affairs. Americans were told that remote learning was the only proper response to the pandemic. U.S. school children will suffer for years because of it. Private and parochial schools managed to stay open with no harm to their students. But one good result came from the action: Parents got a glimpse into the horrific garbage that was being shoved down their kids’ throats, both in subjects that schools traditionally teach and in topics that reflect the mental disorders of some adults. Political propaganda and woke nonsense replaced objective teaching of civics and history.

Topics that have no place in school curriculum were inserted. In one jurisdiction, New York City, it was reported that $200,000 was spent on drag queen shows. Objecting to this usurpation of parental prerogatives in personal issues is not being “anti-gay” or “anti-LGBTIQQ.” School officials and teacher-union bullies have no right to intervene into personal areas that are the rights of parents to decide. The actions of the Biden Administration to label outraged parents as “domestic terrorists” deserve universal condemnation.

Academic and editorial fools tried to tell us that men could give birth, and that there were more than two physical genders.

As Washington surrendered control of the borders, state and local officials gave up control of the streets to the worst criminals. Violent crime, including murder, assault, rape, and robbery in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C. rose up to 40%. Despite the clear statistics, elected officials insisted there was no crime wave, and continued with their absurd bail reform and decriminalization policies.

2022, and its irrationalities, are over. America’s 2023 resolution should be to undo the damage done by the collection of dishonest and incompetent elected officials and progressive ideologues who caused so much harm to the nation.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.