Brendan Byrne, the late governor of New Jersey (1974-82), whom I met when I was the New Jersey Libertarian Party nominee (1997), quipped on many occasions that after he dies, he wanted to be buried in Jersey City so he could stay active in New Jersey politics. Instead, Byrne, who died in 2018 at age 93, was cremated, and his ashes were interred in Princeton Cemetery. Even the two-term governor did not get his wish to stay active in corrupt New Jersey politics. C’est la vie.
Although the late senator John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee who got creamed in the election, was the biggest warmonger in my lifetime to seek the presidency, must be smiling but not from Heaven, that his former Senate colleague Joe Biden has implemented—lock stock and barrel—his belligerent foreign policy. In other words, the McCain’s foreign policies have been enacted by Biden even though he got crushed in 2008 and is deceased.
It is therefore astonishing that Biden’s approval rating is at 46% despite his egregious domestic and foreign policies, especially since his $100 billion of military support and other aid for Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war with Russia. Furthermore, every dollar that goes to support Ukraine must be borrowed adding a humongous amount to the national debt.
Apparently, neatly half of the American people have ignored Biden’s remark last year that we are near a nuclear Armageddon. If the 46 percenters had any brains, they would withdraw their approval of the McCain presidency embodied in Joe Biden. Do the 46 percent really think that Biden’s Ukraine policies are in the best interests of the American people and world peace?
Why isn’t Biden doing anything to end the war in Ukraine? Does he really want to have a nuclear exchange with Russia? Are there back-channel discussions between the US and Russia? US and China? Biden should remember, maybe he does not, that President Kennedy and Soviet leader Khrushchev had back-channel discussions to diffuse the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Can someone get Biden a history book or at least have him read a detailed account of the last almost Armageddon scenario?
On the domestic front, Biden has embraced Bernie Sanders’ domestic policies—more taxes, more spending, and more regulations. In short, Biden has given us the 21st century version of the New Deal and Great Society on steroids. Federal spending is out of control, and interest on the national debt is approaching $500 billion, while the total national debt is headed to $32 trillion very soon.
In other words, you don’t have to win high political office to have your policies enacted. In my memoir, I point out that a couple of my policy proposals were enacted by Governor Whitman after she was reelected and by Jim McGreevey after he was elected governor in 2001.
McCain is gone and Bernie twice lost the Democratic nomination for president. It has not mattered. We have Bernie McCain in the Oval Office.
Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.