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When Sean Hannity asked me why President Joe Biden would favor buying oil and gas from Venezuela over producing oil and gas in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Louisiana or North Dakota, something clicked in my thinking.
I was reminded of the amazing speech United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick gave at the 1984 Republican Convention, when she described the "blame-America-first Democrats."
I suddenly realized the common thread of Biden administration policies at home and abroad is to weaken America.
BIDEN'S FUMBLED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL WAS A PROPAGANDA GIFT TO CHINA, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT FINDS
Think about the administration’s range of choices and ask yourself: Which ones would strengthen America, and which ones would weaken it?
In this Aug. 22, 2021, image provided by the U.S. Marine Corps, A Marine with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command gives a high five to a child during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP) (Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)
In Afghanistan, Biden could have followed the advice of the professional military and withdrawn in a calm and orderly manner. This would have led to no loss of life, no abandonment of equipment, and no sense of humiliating failure. It would have made America stronger.
Instead, the Biden administration overruled the military, abandoned billions in equipment, fled Afghanistan in chaos, sacrificed 13 young Americans, and abandoned thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of our allies. He chose to weaken America.
The Biden team could side with the demonstrators in Iran and China who are trying to overthrow dictatorships. Instead, it has made a series of weak, border-line pathetic comments. A strong America would reach out to people striving to be free. A weak America kowtows to Xi Jinping and the Chinese communist dictatorship and grovels to the ayatollah and the Iranian tyranny – no matter how much they work against us. Once again, weakening America and strengthening our enemies is the Biden model.
If the United States had sustained energy independence, we would be strengthening our European allies with liquid natural gas. They could ignore Russia’s economic blackmail. A strong America would do just that. Instead, the Biden administration is pleading with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and exonerating him from the killing of a journalist. All of Biden’s earlier tough language about Saudi Arabia being a "pariah state" has dissolved. All that is left is Biden’s whimpering plea for more Saudi oil to make up for the American oil he has blocked. Again, America is weaker.
As I mentioned, Kirkpatrick was the first to clearly identify the decay of the Democrats away from strength and realism toward weakness and fantasies. Her 1984 speech captured the trajectory of madness and destruction onto which the Democrats had embarked.
She noted that the Democrats at that time had clearly broken from the patriotic traditions of Democrat Presidents Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson and were on a new, more destructive path. She continued:
"They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do - they didn't blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians – they blamed the United States instead.
"But then, somehow, they always blame America first.
Lockdown enforcers in China were arrested after being seen beating civilians. (Viral Press)
"When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the ‘blame America first crowd’ didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.
"But then, they always blame America first.
"When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.
"But then, they always blame America first.
"When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.
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"But then, they always blame America first."
In the last 38 years, "blame America first" has metastasized into "weaken America first."
The patriotic courage of Presidents Truman, Kennedy and Johnson has mutated into a steadily weaker and more pathetic foreign and national security policy. It began with President Jimmy Carter and grew steadily worse with Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Biden.
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Today, the most reliable predictor of Biden administration (or Democrat Party) policy is whether it will strengthen or weaken America.
If it will strengthen America, they almost certainly will not do it. If it will weaken America, they almost certainly will.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM NEWT GINGRICH
For more commentary from Newt, visit Gingrich360.com.
Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995-1999 and a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He is chairman of Gingrich 360.