On the Waterfront

The longshoreman strike is a great example of why you need a functioning president at the top of the executive branch.

There has been a lot of gobbledygook from leftist circles over the past several months that Biden’s inability to carry out the functions of the presidency is not a crisis because for the most part government runs on its own. They say, sure he’s not up to another four years but let’s not go crazy and start thinking about invoking the 25th Amendment forcing him to resign; we’ve got smart people in government and can get by.

Well the two arguments against that are the natural entropy of government and the ability to deal with crises. In both cases, someone needs to have both the legitimacy and incentive to knock heads and take the risks needed in a leader; as the sign on Truman’s desk said “The Buck Stops Here.”

We’ve been skating on thin ice for a while regarding possible labor unrest across various critical parts of our transportation network and the longshoreman strike couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Biden Administration. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has maximum leverage given its ability to shut down the ports in the eastern half of the country at a time when the economy is especially vulnerable and during the final month of an election when the Democrats need union support in a tight election.

The last thing the Democrats need is the economy to go into a tailspin, the second-to-last things they need is the labor unrest that would stem from invoking Taft-Hartley and breaking the strike.

Outside of the danger to the economy and people’s livelihoods there is something almost entrancing about the cartoon-villainy of ILA President Harold Daggett who has threatened to cripple the economy if his demands aren’t met regarding pay and automation. You can argue that long-term he is being foolish because he’s converted a viable threat in-being to a dangerous threat in fact, the best threats you can have are the ones you never have to state let alone use.

It also doesn’t help that the productivity of US ports are among the lowest in the world. In the world of tight supply chains and container shipping, inefficiency in port operations has the same effect as a tariff on cost of goods. To paraphrase William J. Le Petomane, Daggett and the ILA need to protect their phony baloney jobs. I’m nostalgic as the next guy, but not for that 70’s vibe of unions using extortion to protect their cushy way of life.

So basically our cartoon villain Daggett has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged the feds to come get him. The problem in the executive branch is that anyone can make a decision and get it implemented under Biden’s signature, but there has to be somebody willing to take the risks and the heat to see that decision through and that’s where the buck stops. Somebody needs to not just broker across the various interests in any administration but to make the decision stick. There’s only so much our 21st Century version of Edith Wilson, Jill Biden, can do.

Like Zelensky and the Mullahs, Daggett knows that a Republican victory will undercut his leverage so he’s in a use-it-or-lose it situation. If Biden does nothing, the economy tanks. If Biden breaks the strike, he weakens a valuable base of support for the Democrats right before the election.

From the Middle East to the Atlantic-Gulf Coast ports, the consequences of the Biden puppetry are coming home to roost.

Side note, it’s a shame Jen Psaki is no longer in government so that when the inevitable shortages from the ILA strike occur she can poo-poo us about “the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.”