Ah, how beautiful it is when the woke eat their own.
In a CNN town hall earlier this week, President Biden was asked about student loan forgiveness. Earlier this month, Chuck Schumer began mounting public pressure on Biden to issue $50K relief to each borrower. Disgustingly, Schumer said this is something that Biden can and should do himself "with the flick of a pen" through executive order.
Biden addressed this claim in the town hall, claiming that I "don't think I have the authority to do it by signing" an order. While I appreciate this sentiment, where was this mentality during the first week of his administration when he signed a record-breaking 37 executive orders?
The dialog started when a lady asked Biden the following: "We need at least a $50,000 minimum [debt relief]. What will you do to make it happen?" Without missing a beat – seriously, this is the most lively, direct, and responsive I've seen ole Sleepy Joe in years – he answered, "I will not make that happen." A total mic drop moment; it made me smile, I won't lie. Everything after that spiraled downhill, in typical Biden fashion, but for a brief moment I was impressed.
What would have really impressed me is if Biden had said the actual truth about forgiving loan debt, which is that it is a stupid idea. Forgiving student loan debt does two things: it puts the responsibility to pay the debt on the taxpayer (who did not sign to take out the loan), and it tells the young adults who took out the loan, "Don't worry about your responsibility; we will force your neighbor to pay your debt for you."
I say this as someone with my own student loan debt from undergrad: Please do not forgive my debt, President Biden. I signed forms declaring both my understanding of what I was doing and my agreement to pay them back. I will proudly pay back that debt once my education is complete. I chose to take out loans in 2015 so that I could pay my rent, knowing full well that the degree in chemistry I was pursuing would allow me to pay those loans back easily one day.
Should everyone take out loans? Definitely not. If the paycheck from your post-graduation employment will not allow you to live comfortably while paying off your loan, then it was a foolish, irresponsible decision to take out the loan in pursuit of that degree. That is reality. Our choices have consequences. If those consequences negatively impact your life, that is not an excuse to neglect your responsibility. It's not your neighbor's debt. It's yours.
Now, the thing about Biden's response that really got the Left up in arms was his "classism" regarding which debt should be forgiven. He made the statement that we should not forgive "the billions" of debt taken on by those who attended elite schools (he mentions Harvard, Yale, and Penn); instead, that money could do something useful, like go toward early education in disadvantaged communities.
You can read all of the woke outcries here, but the one tweet I want to highlight said that it's "extremely classist and racist to assume that only rich people can get into 'elite' schools."
I have two issues with this.
First, the term "elite," when tacked onto a school, refers to the price tag to attend that school; therefore, you cannot go to that school if you cannot afford it through either your daddy's money or student loans. That is not classist. That is not prejudice or discriminatory against the "unwealthy." It is, once again, reality. Reality is harsh sometimes. If you want to buy the $7,000 flat screen at Best Buy but you only have $1,000, is Samsung now classist for making a high-end television that you can't afford when there's a perfectly functioning $800 Samsung tv right next to it?
School is no different. Higher education is not a right, it is a privilege. Luckily, we have a plethora of choices for higher education. Don't want the debt of an Ivy League school? Then don't go there. Don't want to take out student loans at all? Then don't! Go to trade school; you'll make more money than any of us in the long run, anyway.
It's really that simple.
My second issue with this statement is, of course, that race was brought into a race-independent discussion, as the Left loves to do. That's all they know how to do, actually. Everything is racist. That's the only way to keep that loyalist victim mentality in the minds of their voters.
An example of an actual racist statement from President Biden in this setting would be if he had said, "I will give the $50K student loan relief to black borrowers, but not white borrowers." Many on the Left would have clearly applauded this socially acceptable form of racism. But, that's not what he said. And the fact remains that simply refusing to give the relief to anyone is not racist.
Race itself is not a socioeconomic class; therefore, it is in no way "racist" to refuse offering the $50K loan relief to the whole nation.
None of this makes President Biden a racist, obviously. Saying things like "poor kids are just as bright as white kids" or "you ain't black" – which are words he actually said – would more closely indicate Sleepy Joe's racist leanings. Actually, there's a whole slew of questionable things this man has said on race in the last 10 years: take your pick!
The problem is this: these people – HIS people, the woke Twitter mob – who are calling him racist right now were well aware of these actually "racist" remarks he made, even from the campaign trail. And yet, they voted for him anyway. Are they really concerned with race? Or do they just use the term "racist" as they see fit to get their way and push their agenda?
These are not people I want to associate with. There is no rationality or logic in this response from Biden. In fact, when the most rational, logical thought in a situation is coming from Joe Biden of all people... we've got a serious issue.
When everything is racist, then nothing is truly racist. This is not good for a functioning society, particularly one that is so hellbent on "eradicating" racism as we are right now. It is incredibly hypocritical and counterproductive. This Leftist idea that "everything that I disagree with is racist" excuses actual racism. It equates the evil that racism is with literal non-racism such as this. We have to continue speaking out against this and expose it at every opportunity.