Migrants try to cross along razor wire to cross Texas border despite security measures in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on January 29, 2024. The immigration issue has led to a crisis between the federal government and state authorities in Texas. Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has called the growing influx of migrants "an invasion" and has erected razor-wire fencing in defiance of the Supreme Court and the Biden administration. Photo: VCG
After US President Joe Biden's victory in South Carolina's Democratic primary, it seems likely that his grip in the Democratic nomination has been secured, which could see him in a rematch with former president Donald Trump. Yet the rally for border security in Texas this weekend indicates that the real chaos may have just begun.
With the election looming closer, politicians care more about making each other look bad than solving real problems, and Americans are going to take more and more extreme measures to make themselves heard and seen, thus further dividing and polarizing the US.
Biden easily won South Carolina's Democratic primary on Saturday, defeating the other long-shot Democrats on South Carolina's ballot, including Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson, AP reported.
With Biden facing little serious competition for the Democratic nomination, Saturday's primary, the first official contest in the Democratic presidential race, was important for the president nonetheless because it marked a return to the place that catapulted him to the Democratic nomination in 2020, reported CNN.
Biden's victory in South Carolina was anticipated, and it proves that it is just a matter of time before Biden becomes the Democratic candidate, putting him on course for a rematch against former president Donald Trump in November, Li Haidong, a professor with the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
"Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the presidency again - and making Donald Trump a loser - again," Biden said in a statement after his victory in South Carolina, AFP reported on Sunday.
Chinese experts noted that although Biden's road to becoming the Democratic presidential nominee is clear, he is facing mounting obstacles to win the election. For example, the incumbent US president's support rate is falling due to his poor performance on diplomacy, economy and border policies and many are also questioning if the 81-year-old can manage this tough job for another four years, said experts.
At the same time when Biden won South Carolina Democratic primary, a line of trucks and campers, cars and vans - from South Dakota and North Carolina, Washington and Pennsylvania - hoping to draw attention to the situation at the US-Mexico border arrived in Quemado, Texas, on Saturday for their planned rally, per the New York Times.
The Saturday gathering marked the final stop of a days-long journey: A convoy of conservative Americans who drove to the border to demonstrate their frustration, fear and anger over what they saw as a broken immigration system.
The flaring tension at the US-Mexico border has drawn worldwide attention with many international observers said that such conflict is moving the US toward "civil war."
The rally on Saturday is the perfect example of how US domestic conflicts are going to be fomented and even detonated by the 2024 presidential election, as many people want to make appeals in extreme and violent ways, Li warned.
He noted that what makes the situation worse is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will negotiate and compromise with each other as the election approaches, because to the opposite party, failure is more important than solving problems.
Take the border issue. The Republicans are sitting idly and watching Biden's moves. If Biden cut loose of the problem, voters will be panicked about the safety issue that comes along with those immigrates; if Biden takes tougher measures, those who support Democrats won't be happy. The president is placed in a dilemma, said Li.
Last week, a group of 26 Republican states attorneys warned the Biden administration to "get out of the way" in the southern border battle dispute if it does not want to work with Texas officials and the state's military, Newsweek reported.