We are seeing this play out in politics. The destruction of people, their livelihoods, an entire state, a national military, and century-old alliances all gone up in smoke, because the person in charge never learned how to do the work of building character. The work of building an actual enterprise, and the blood, sweat, tears that go into it. The work of honoring your word, saying what you mean, and meaning what you say. The work of seeing and caring for actual people, especially those who could do nothing for them. The work of empathy and compassion for people’s plight, rather than taking it as an opportunity to exploit those people, that plight.

The actions that have unfolded concerning Afghanistan were borne of cold, calculated, craven greed and arrogance by individuals totally devoid of character. But when you have too many things handed to you, and you are not required to do the work to earn them, you live under the illusion that you deserve it all, and your skill, charm, and abilities are more essential than the actual work. You then assume those supposed skills and abilities will carry you forward. Here is where the illusion ends. Here is where everyone else lives the damage.

In a POLITICO expose profiling then-President Barack Obama’s and VP Joe Biden’s relationship, it alluded to Biden’s laziness and refusal to do the work:

Biden’s own academic career was unimpressive—he repeated the third grade, earned all Cs and Ds in his first three semesters at the University of Delaware except for As in P.E., a B in “Great English Writers” and an F in ROTC, and graduated 76th in his Syracuse Law School class of 85 students. […]

Biden admitted as much in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep, writing “It’s important to read reports and listen to the experts; more important is being able to read people in power.”

It’s maddening seeing it in action.

It’s disheartening that it is allowed to go on.

And it always ends badly for everyone else, except the individuals who cause it.

President Joe Biden spent 41 years marinating in one Senate position. Biden rode the coattails of known racists and learned to read them in order to garner power, get appointments, and curry favor. These are appointments where he was barely up to the task, you see, and where he was left to deploy his bumbling and destructive tactics. Remember then-Judge Clarence Thomas? Had now Justice Clarence Thomas been a lesser man, Biden’s racist tactics and mean-spirited gamesmanship would have tanked his appointment.

Biden ran for president three times and had to drop out for varying degrees of ineptitude, deceit, or malfeasance.

Biden’s 1987 presidential run was marked by his plagiarizing an Iowa State Fair speech from a British politician named Neil Kinnock:

Biden officially entered the race for presidency in 1987 when he was Delaware’s senator.

He dropped out after three months due to a supposed plagiarism scandal involving British politician Neil Kinnock.

The event was held at the Iowa State Fair and Biden began his speech by claiming he was the first in “a thousand generations” to go to college in his family.

Kinnock rightly called him out for this, but Biden still bristles at the accusation that he stole someone else’s work. However, he did admit that he was not the first family member to go to college.

Big of him.

That penchant of stealing other’s work reared its head even back then. Yet, the people of Delaware allowed him to remain in office.

Biden created racist laws (the 1994 crime bill), was allowed to say racist things because, well, you know he really didn’t mean it, or that’s just Joe! Biden was selected to be a vice presidential running mate because of his supposed foreign policy credentials and his “experience.” All those appointments and committees paying off for him.

In his memoir, former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates infamously said about Biden:

“He’s a man of integrity, incapable of hiding what he really thinks, and one of those rare people you know you could turn to for help in a personal crisis. Still, I think he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

Gates got the last part right, while totally missing it on the first. This is proven by the Afghans and Americans who thought President Biden could be counted on in their crisis, and Biden turned his back on them.

As stated above, Biden never did the work, never learned what integrity is—he simply faked his way through glad-handing, faux empathy, and the retail-end of politics enough where people mistook it for commitment and integrity.

In that same POLITICO expose, the writer reports that one Democrat heard Barack Obama say this about Biden:

Yet searing, anonymously sourced quotes from Obama kept appearing through the race. One Democrat who spoke to Obama recalled the former president warning, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*ck things up.”

Now this country, countless families, and Afghanistan are suffering the damage of Biden f*ck*ng things up.

His last ditch effort to run for President of the United States was done from the basement of his Delaware home. Now doddering and even more intellectually limited, Biden allowed others, especially those surrogates and voters who are the shade of people he used to say ugly things about, to do the leg work and the spin work for him. Diversity is convenient window dressing for him and his ilk. Because they thought the world hated that Bad Orange Man and his tweets, they impugned Trump, and made him out to be evil. Now they are doing the same to the people who voted for him.

After every illegal trick in the book was pulled to ensure President Trump didn’t get re-elected, the craven, old fool Biden was installed. Biden did nothing to deserve the position, and had a track record of destroying what he touches. Look at his son Hunter—those poor choices and destructive tendencies didn’t come by accident.

Now Biden has done even more damage, and we are the worse for it. America has been diminished, and made a laughingstock to the world. You have 13 service members dead for no reason other than hubris married to incompetence. You have Americans and Afghans left to be slaughtered because of the same.

Now we are watching this president, with incrementally diminishing mental capabilities, fumble and bumble through the fallout of horrible decisions by him and others that occurred on his watch. The destructive trajectory Biden has set the Middle East on will be felt for decades, and not in a good way. Talk radio host and former advisor to President Donald Trump, Sebastian Gorka presented a poll that asked, “Do you feel America is safe for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11?”

Do you feel America is safe for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11?

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) August 31, 2021

The poll is still rolling, but last I checked, 96 percent voted “NO.” But that feeling unsafe is not only due to the 9/11 anniversary; it’s due to a White House that has systematically created an exposed atmosphere for Americans both at home, and now abroad. It started with the unrest, destruction, and so-called “peaceful protests” of 2020 in the U.S., and it is playing out on the world stage with a newly empowered Taliban which now has air power and capability thanks to Biden.

No one feels safe; and it will be a very long time before anyone actually is.

Biden was given a solid plan, and he couldn’t even follow it properly. Now Americans are horrified at the train wreck and the damage that will continue to be uncovered.

All because Biden failed to do the work of becoming a real leader, and real human that cared about serving the people, rather than serving his ambitions.

These same seeds of entitlement, maddening hubris, and foolish arrogance have been in full bloom with California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom has been a son of privilege for the majority of his life, coddled and enabled by a connected father and a well-heeled benefactor. Newsom has been saddled with delusions of grandeur as voluminous as the amount of hair gel he uses.

First mantled with a San Francisco Board of Supervisors position by then-San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Newsom has slid into shoes too big for him to walk in, and has stumbled, bumbled, and failed up—including in his own personal life. Despite this, Newsom maintained the same delusions of grandeur that fueled Biden: that of becoming President of the United States.

Gavin Newsom is a political blueblood who always had one eye towards the White House. We need a governor who has a blue-collar work ethic committed to us and to the office. #VoteYesOnTheRecall

— Ronald L. Fong (@edifiquest) August 21, 2021

Californians are in a battle to remove this cancerous boil as governor, because Newsom’s failure to do the work, and his hubris in flouting his corruption and entitlement, while Californians lose their livelihoods, their businesses, and their autonomy, is destroying the state. However, we also know that with Newsom’s presidential aspirations, cutting off the head of this snake will ultimately save the nation. People like Biden and Newsom should have been on psychiatrists’ couches, not in public office. Do the work to build a life, to build character, to actually care about people. Get your pernicious proclivities corrected, or stay away from pubic office.

They should be cautionary tales. Instead, we are living the damage of their fevered ambitions.