Biden’s Agenda Meets Reality

With President Biden’s domestic agenda breaking down as he heads off on his first foreign ...

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With President Biden’s domestic agenda breaking down as he heads off on his first foreign trip, the gang talks about what it will take to get anything done in Washington. One person responsible for a great deal of stress for President Biden is Sen. Joe Manchin. Is he helping or hurting the Democrats? Plus, as U.S. forces begin to withdraw from Afghanistan, Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David worry what will take its place. Finally: doom porn. Need we say more? 

Show Notes:

–ProPublica tax story

–Politico’s story on Biden and Manchin’s ‘Joemance’

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Topic for the next Dispatch Podcast: the competition between the Jonah side of the Dispatch and the Steve side of the Dispatch that Jonah joked about on a recent Remnant episode. If I had to guess, the divide is between the half that wants to take the Dispatch in a bit of a “wild and crazy” direction and the half that wants the Dispatch to be emphasize professionalism above all things.

    Note: I would guess readers and listeners like both halves.

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    Campshrop

    Re Douthat/Trump 2024, keep in mind the Beerhall Putsch was in 1923 and the first Russian Revolution was in 1905. Bleeding Kansas was in the 1850s. My point is: history takes time. Consider the Attack on the Capital (yes, that is intentionally capitalized) as the start of a new timeline. The attitude of the Republican party, no longer interested in the Constitution, obsessed with maintaining lies, losing popular support, desperate, and deifying one very flawed man, will put us at the beginning of a timeline that, if left unaddressed, will lead us to the ends the timelines mentioned led the world to. The Republicans in the party who are appeasing the Trumpians to hang on to their own power are complicit in the future crime. Politicians as a rule are a degenerate class, but this crop is exceptional.

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  3. Andrew L

    There’s nothing we can accomplish by being in Afghanistan that we wouldn’t have accomplished in the first 20 years of nation-building. We can’t build them into a stable state, and if we have to leave them to their fate at some point the best possible time is now. While I’m not unsympathetic to the imminent tragedies, as often happens in foreign policy we’re choosing from among bad options. Don’t be the opposition party that just points out that “this will have negative consequences” while implicitly proposing an alternative that’s worse and calling it a victory.

    Jonah often talks about how needing an achievable objective or goal is never applied to things like policing, which just seems like a stunningly cavalier way to discuss going about killing people. War is bad. Sometimes justified certainly, but it’s a high bar to clear when the thing you’re justifying is spending an indeterminate amount of time, treasure, and lives blowing up weddings and hospitals.

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  4. DJ

    I think one *potential* difference in Afghanistan compared to Iraq is the fact that there's not a civil war going on next door that is causing a major refugee crisis spilling over into Europe (Syria). I could be wrong about the Taliban, but I suspect the main takeaway they have from all of this is not to host terrorists who plan shocking attacks against America. They'll continue being awful but maybe it will be contained to their own country?

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    Bryan Myrick

    Never stop talking about Afghanistan.

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    Rajeev

    No election law will satisfy the Trump voters. They will always only be happy if he won. If Trump had livestreamed himself on Facebook filling out thousands of ballots for himself at Maralago his voters would've loved that. They only care to get their outcome of him being in office regardless of vote totals.

    Republicans passing these bills are making it worse. If you took a billion alternate realities not one of them would have Republican voters becoming more responsible and less conspiratorial because of these bills.

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  7. Avatar photo
    Rajeev

    A note on the Joe Manchin Fox News Interview. At that time we knew Biden would be president but the Democrats only had 48 senate seats so Fox News was pushing that a vote for Warnock & Osoff is a vote to destroy the filibuster. Manchin clearly was doing that interview to push back against that narrative and and show his support Warnock and Osoff (and hence himself if they won).

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  8. Avatar photo
    Eric "Otter" Stratton

    I am very disappointed that this podcast did not end with Jonah stating "Taiwan is a country". I was hoping that was going to become a thing.

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    1. Ingenero.lux

      I don’t think this is his “Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam” (Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed. - Cato the Elder, at the end of every speech before the Roman Senate). That might be fun, but I don’t think Jonah’s quite at that point. It would probably be better in Latin.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Adicesa14

    Great conversation. Thank you.

    Afghanistan will be another disaster similar to Viet Nam and Iraq.

    As for Republican attempts to avoid Donald Trump, Impossible! Trump will interfere regardless of anything Republicans do, or not do. He cares only for himself. Republicans should oppose Trump’s lunacy, or he will devastate their 2022 and 2024 prospects. It is their only sane strategy.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Bradley Alpert

    Thank you for the very depressing episode. As we know, everyone loves to stick to their prior beliefs regardless of facts on the ground. But what's now more pervasive then ever before is that the key decision influencers in so many realms (Afghanistan withdrawal, politics in WV, popularity of the leftist agenda, the 2020 election results) are unable to grasp reality, leading to a continuing stream of bad decisions.

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