Invoke the 25th Amendment!

By Daniel Nardini

Lawndale News Chicago's Bilingual Newspaper - CommentaryIt was a year ago this month that the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, thus ending a 20-year war the United States and its NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies had been in since 2001. The withdrawal was a complete disaster. It was decided upon almost at the last minute, U.S. troops were put into a virtually indefensible area, and worse those American citizens and Afghan personnel who were supposed to have been evacuated either were haphazardly evacuated or were stuck in Afghanistan; doomed to remain in a Taliban-controlled country. The one responsible for this fiasco was U.S. President Joe Biden. It is sad to this day that Biden has not taken full responsibility for this disaster, and the 13 American soldiers who were killed who should otherwise have lived (and what about those Americans left behind?!).

In my view this was foreshadowing. One other thing we have seen that has impacted Americans is inflation. It is now at a 40 year high. Some will argue that the problem with supply chains are the root cause of this inflation. Fair enough, this problem was already an issue even before Biden was elected president. However, his energy policies only made it worse. Following a “green agenda,” Biden cut back oil and gas production that had been instituted under both former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. This previous policy had made the United States a virtually independent oil and gas producer. When Biden had cut back oil and gas production, the prices for basic goods and services started to skyrocket, and so did gas prices. Biden blames Russia for the current high gas prices, but this was happening before Russia’s invasion and war against Ukraine.

And just recently Biden fumbled an important foreign policy issue in regards to Taiwan. Actually, he has been fumbling that one since day one. He did not state clearly and unequivocally that the United States would go to Taiwan’s defense if China invaded Taiwan, and would stand firm with Taiwan in the face of threats from China. Making a bad situation worse, he was ambiguous about whether the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, should go to Taiwan or not. This not only created great confusion but emboldened China to make threats and attempt to inch ever closer towards a possible war with Taiwan. If the Speaker of the House did not go to Taiwan as had been originally planned, then it would have sent a very dangerous signal to America’s allies that the United States could no longer be trusted to keep its word and to America’s enemies that it would no longer defend America’s allies. Fortunately House Speaker Pelosi realized the gravity of the situation and did go to Taiwan despite Biden not wanting her to go to Taiwan and China’s threats to shoot down her airplane.

As if none of this were bad enough, I only have to see how Biden himself has been performing as president. Turning off the commentaries from both critics and supporters of the president, I see a man who seems to go on mental tangents, slur his words, and is far from clear about what he wants or intends to do. All of this is scary to put it mildly. It shows me a kind but a weak, feeble old man who does not understand what is going on around him. And this man is President of the United States?! To me, anyone in the White House who is President of the United States should be showing complete and total control of the situation and be decisive and clear in whatever his/her decisions are. That I am not seeing this means that I believe those in the president’s cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This amendment was passed after the assassination of former U.S. President John Kennedy in 1963 to provide a line of succession in case the president was killed, removed from office by impeachment, or due to incapacitation.

The president seems incapacitated, and he seems incapable of performing his duties as president, so he must be removed. Sadly, I see none in the Democratic Party willing to do anything like this. Like the Republican Party, those in the Democratic Party seem to be reluctant to remove “their man” for purely political reasons even if he cannot carry out his duties. The political divisions in both political parties have become so bad and so partisan that any sign of weakness means a winner take all approach. Some leading Democrats are beginning to no longer back Biden for becoming president again in the presidential election in 2024. However, these Democrats may be the exception and not the general rule. In my view, Biden should be removed under the 25th Amendment for the good of the country, and because the country is going in the absolute wrong direction.

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