As the days tick down in his term in office, President Joe Biden and his administration are hurrying to enact a long list of regulations and, in so doing, are laying bare the stakes of the 2024 presidential election.
This month, the Biden administration’s Department of Education finalized a regulation on Title IX that radically overhauled how schools can police interactions between men and women. For the first time, sex-separate spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms will now, by law, be required to permit anyone to use them, provided the person “identifies” with a gender that corresponds to each space.
Men who identify as girls must be allowed to compete in sports programs that correspond with their “identity,” and they must also be allowed to expose themselves in the girls’ locker room. Anything less is discrimination.
Another rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives now makes it illegal for someone to sell a firearm without a license, possibly criminalizing the sale of a gun on Facebook or eBay if the seller does not first become a licensed dealer, an onerous ask for someone who just wants to sell an old gun he or she does not use.
At the Department of Agriculture, a new rule dictating the amount of added sugar in school meals was finalized, effectively stripping away the ability of school boards and officials to determine what is served at their local school cafeterias.
What is often forgotten in the mad rush of campaigns is that the election of a president is about so much more than who will occupy the White House, serve as the commander in chief of the military, and represent the nation to the world.
The presidential administration is responsible for the writing and implementation of thousands of regulations across the 15 departments that make up the executive branch. These regulations touch on everything from the water flow of showerheads to “discrimination” in schools, such as the aforementioned Title IX rule, workplace safety requirements, emissions requirements for cars, and whether gas or electric stoves can be sold in stores.
As much as the personality of former President Donald Trump and the age of Biden will feature in this year’s campaign season, the impact of the election will be felt for years in ways that can’t fully be understood on Election Day 2024.
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If Biden is afforded a second term in office, the damaging regulatory agenda he has advanced will only grow. Already, his administration has telegraphed plans to target religious freedom for student groups, cancel student loans, and expand abortion.
As it is, these regulations will take years to undo, even if Trump is able to win the White House in November. Republican but Trump-skeptical voters should ask themselves if the regulatory agenda of the Biden administration and its effect on their families and loved ones will be worth a protest vote against the only person in a position to stop the government from forcing men to shower alongside girls in a school locker room. Those are the stakes of the 2024 election.