Less than a week before the midterm elections, President Joe Biden took to the podium to give one of the most divisive and ugliest speeches I’ve seen given by a sitting president. As Republican candidates surge around the country because voters trust the GOP more on rising crime, the economy, and inflation, Biden shouted angrily at half the country from Washington’s Union Station.
The irony of giving this tone-deaf speech from Union Station is obvious. Union Station is the center of travel in Washington: Bus routes, regional trains to the airport, the Metro, and hundreds of taxis and ride-share vehicles intersect at the station. It would be a great place to tout a big policy win on travel costs. But Biden is directly responsible for a year of crushing fuel prices that have made travel a nightmare for America’s families. In a recent poll, 79% of people traveling for the holidays this year will change their plans to account for inflation .
The gold-plated ceiling of Union Station has awed travelers entering the district for generations — but that awe quickly turns to shock when travelers exit the terminals.
Today, with the Capitol dome in the background, those arriving witness a scene more like a Third World country, with tent dwellings and open drug use, where the dispossessed cajole families passing by to give them spare change. A man was stabbed at the station earlier this year, and in September, a shooting occurred at a popular lunch restaurant at the station.
Soft-on-crime prosecutors and Democratic politicians have made our cities increasingly unsafe places to live and work. Police departments have their hands tied trying to tamp down crime when offenders are back on the street the same day they are arrested. America’s cities have simply become more dangerous places under our current president.
Most ironically, Biden chose to speak in a part of the station whose space was freed up due to the closing of retail stores. Many stores in Washington have been forced to close in the past two years due to overbearing pandemic rules: a pandemic that the White House refuses to admit is not currently an emergency.
Due to out-of-control crime, it simply doesn’t make sense for businesses to operate in Union Station. This fall, Starbucks shuttered its doors for good in Union Station because the company felt the risks outweighed the rewards of selling coffee in this busy travel hub. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz laid the blame directly at the feet of the politicians who have failed to maintain law and order in these locations.
Washington is run entirely by Democratic politicians: from the mayor to the city council to the Congress and the president, who have the power to overturn local district laws. Union Station is a prime example of the effect that their policies have had on fuel prices, crime, and our economy.
Biden avoided mentioning any of these topics in his speech because his administration has only failure and chaos to tout. Instead, he went with the usual route of casting Republicans as a threat to democracy in a desperate bid to change the subject rather than address the problems making people’s lives worse.
Next week, America will give this president and Congress their report card. Is your life better than it was two years ago, or are you angry that you and your family are sacrificing due to inflation when Washington just keeps spending? Will seeing your loved ones out-of-town this holiday season be less expensive, or will you be one of those families changing their plans to be able to afford it?
Are your cities safer and police forces stronger, or are you fed up with criminals being treated like victims?
Are the employers in your community being given a chance to recover from the pandemic and prosper, or is your town seeing more and more small businesses unable to stay alive in the Biden economy?
Next Tuesday, the power is in your hands.
