Conservatism

To the Editor:
As events in Afghanistan unfold, a number of things become clear: A) Traditional media is not particularly liberal. They have jumped all over Biden and Democrats without waiting to see the outcome which, while certainly no raving success by anyone’s standards, has unfolded to be reasonably successful, certainly more successful than first thought. However, I have seen almost no reporting on the disappearance of the Afghan army or the fact that the Taliban and ISIS-K had obviously been metastasizing under Trump.
B) That there were multiple causes for the outcome, including actions by the preceding three presidents, faulty intelligence, hubris, if not ignorance on the part of both of our political parties spending a trillion dollars to nation-build there, inadequate and inaccurate military advice, etc.
C) With all the complexity of the situation, and mixed outcomes, some yet undecided, Biden blamed no one else. No insults. No claims about “fake news.” No finger-pointing. He accepted responsibility. What a welcome change from Trump!
However, our District 2 representative, Van Drew, toed his newfound Republican party line by immediately parroting demands for Biden’s resignation, without even waiting to see how things played out, despite having zero military or foreign policy experience of any kind, calling it a disaster and Biden senile. It was nothing short of slander from a Republican representative.
A couple of weeks ago, he said in an interview in the Atlantic City Press that his immediate concern was for the safety of Americans in Afghanistan, without mentioning that he has been silent about Trump’s role in over 100,000 American deaths by his irresponsible, unscientific response to Covid, and certainly no mention that Trump wanted our troops withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 1, even faster than Biden, or that ex-President Trump had proposed an almost identical withdrawal in June of this year, or mention of Trump’s almost identical stranding of Kurds when he withdrew from Syria.
In the past, Van Drew has voted against the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative because it was ‘too expensive.’ It should be pointed out that despite being a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Van Drew voted against the much reduced $1.3 trillion infrastructure bill because, as was the Republican party line, it was “too expensive.” Protecting New Jersey’s vulnerable shore communities through infrastructure spending is clearly not a primary concern of his.
His vote came after he voted for a $2.3 trillion deficit-enlarging bill under Trump in December. That wasn’t “too expensive?” He voted against any realistic ways of getting money from the wealthy.
What seems important to Van Drew is toeing the Republican party line.
I’m not sure he is a disgrace, but he certainly is an embarrassment to our District 2 and New Jersey. Our state rightfully prides itself on its high educational standards and he is the very antithesis of that. He is more in line with sycophant Republicans in totally red states. I’m proud of New Jersey for many things, but he isn’t one. Truthfully, his new fawning, partisan behavior makes me ashamed that I ever voted for him.