Standing at a podium in Philadelphia, US President Joseph Biden recently sought to leverage the heritage of a city that gave birth to our American democracy while making such a fiercely partisan speech that its ultimate legacy may be to further divide a divided nation. Had he been more truthful about our nation's current challenges, he might have stood inside a supermarket where prices for basic staples needed by working families are skyrocketing.
He also could have chosen many of our New York neighborhoods where career criminals have essentially been presented with a "get out of jail" card by many in Biden's political party.
Then again, he could have stood next to a gasoline pump and acknowledged that his energy policies have returned us to an era of being energy dependent on foreign nations that are hostile to the very democracy he is sworn to protect.
These realities reveal that America is at a dangerous tipping point, where the future of our nation is literally in question. One suspects no one in the White House is asking themselves how they can avoid previous leadership failures that allowed countries to go from global dominance to history's dustbin. They need only look at the arc of time for nations such as Spain, the Netherlands and Britain to see how inept, incompetent or weak leadership led to their inevitable collapse as the dominant nation of their time. It is as if there is a house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with no one in it.
The Chinese, however, are students of history. With an economy that reaches around the globe and a military now capable of patrolling the Pacific, it is apparent they are betting that America will fail its test of leadership and follow others in relinquishing its global dominance. In this case, China is ready to assume that role.
The stark reality is that the current White House occupants have compounded error upon error. A speech long on partisan rhetoric but short on competence will not address the strategic errors in judgment being made by those who took a sacred oath of office to preserve, defend and protect our nation.
There is still time to hand a new generation of Americans a strong nation capable of defending its values, its citizens and its future, but that will require us to recognize what other nations refused to acknowledge: that history's tipping point is before us.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
