An explosive new poll shows that Biden and the Democratic Party’s approach to the southern border crisis – neglect, blame-shifting and a refusal to face facts – is creating a massive backlash among the American people. In three short years, the American public has shifted from mild tolerance of our porous southern border to labeling the border a national security concern and a massive crisis that they demand the next administration solve.

The president of the United States is the head of the executive branch of the federal government. Among that branch’s responsibilities is law enforcement; this is why the president takes the oath of office to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Ahead of the anniversary of Jan. 6, President Joe Biden gave a speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to kick off his 2024 campaign. His theme was that the upcoming presidential election will determine whether or not America remains a democracy because a vote for Donald Trump is a vote to end democracy in America.

The calendar turns to 2024, and the world under President Joe Biden’s watch is burning. The United States’ southern border has reached a historically catastrophic state; overrun border towns such as Lukeville, Arizona and Eagle Pass, Texas are the laughingstocks of the world. Further south in our hemisphere, socialist thug Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela threatens to infringe upon neighboring Guyana’s territorial sovereignty. In Eastern Europe, the Russia-Ukraine war, now nearly two years in the making, shows little sign of abating. In the Middle East, Israel’s multifront war against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and other extremists in Judea and Samaria is spilling over to a regional conflagration. U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked over 100 times since Hamas’ Oct. 7 pogrom; the Iranfunded Houthis in Yemen fire indiscriminately at commercial tankers and control the Babel-Mandeb Strait, a crucial global trade chokepoint.

Afew minutes before the ball came down on Times Square on New Year’s Eve, Paul Anka sang a song that has become a tradition for this event. It was “Imagine,” a 1971 song John Lennon co-authored with his wife, Yoko Ono.

Dr. Claudine Gay has resigned as president of Harvard University. A tepid nonresponse to congressional questioning about opposing antisemitism and calls for genocide of Jewish people on college campuses was enough to doom Liz Magill, former president of the University of Pennsylvania. But Gay survived that fray, only to be done in by evidence of multiple instances of plagiarism in her scholarship, including her Ph.D. dissertation. In her resignation letter, Gay opted not to address the plagiarism (which the Harvard Corporation -- its governing body -- had referred to as “missteps,” “inadequate citation” and “duplicative language”) but defended her own academic standards and expressed hope for a brighter future in her continued role as a faculty member.

The Colorado Supreme Court voted 4-3 on Dec. 19 to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot of the Colorado Republican presidential primary in a desperate bid to interfere in the 2024 election, as Trump continues to lead President Joe Biden in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics.com.

Iwrite this as a very different man than I was when writing my last column. Then, I was merely engaged; now, after the single greatest week of my life culminated in the single greatest day and night of my life, I am married.

EDITOR ’S NOTE: Laura Hollis is off this week. We hope readers will enjoy the following guest column by Ben Shapiro.

People need to realize the Left is using the alleged “existential” threat of global warming to wage war against liberty, against the Western world’s (not China’s) economy and against joy. The automobile, that magnificent enhancement to human freedom and joy, is a target.