The chaos we see taking place on college campuses across America is sad, scary, and entirely unacceptable. It also is unnecessary and has been caused by Joe Biden, his weakness, and the unwillingness of his administration to make necessary decisions and firm statements which provide clarity and leadership. These are lacking – and desperately needed.

The left has created – and owns – this chaos. They appear to have no interest in fixing this problem, because they caused it – and support and welcome chaos domestically and globally.

The American people are aware of the architects of this unrest and will remember it in November.

In the famous1964 “Time for Choosing” speech, Ronald Reagan prophetically gave us the answer we need to solve many of today’s problems. He said, “They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.”

So true. Not easy. But simple. Clarity. Common sense. Courage.

Ronald Reagan not only said this but demonstrated it as well. He was Governor of California during a time of great unrest of college campuses – and took swift and decisive action. Many criticized him, suggesting instead he should have negotiated with the protestors.

Reagan defended his actions during a press conference, “What is to negotiate? … It all began the first time some of you who know better…let young people think that they had the right to choose the laws they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest.”

He continued, “I have a feeling that if you check closely on some of the more militant of those leaders who are advocating violence, you will find that if you settle whatever issue it is that has them worked up today, they’ll be back tomorrow morning with another issue. I think the time has come for them to make a choice. And to decide whether they want to continue to even tolerate these false prophets in their midst who are, if anything, destroying their own community.”

Today, these disgruntled anti-Israel, anti-American protestors cannot be appeased. If you give into their current demands, they won’t say thank you and retreat quietly but will return with more and more demands. Reagan knew this. Biden should know this too but continues to believe that everyone can be appeased – from the Iranian mullahs to college protestors and the paid, professional protestors among them. People who hate you and hate what you stand for cannot be brought around by playing nice or giving them what they say they want.

Reagan was clear, used common sense, and was courageous with his words and his actions. At an address to the annual convention of the NAACP in 1981, President Reagan said, “A few isolated groups in the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently in some places in the nation there's been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence. If I may, from the platform of this organization, known for its tolerance, I would like to address a few remarks to those groups who still adhere to senseless racism and religious prejudice, to those individuals who persist in such hateful behavior.”

He continued, “If I were speaking to them instead of to you, I would say to them, "You are the ones who are out of step with our society. You are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America. And this country, because of what it stands for, will not stand for your conduct.”

Bigotry and violence – whether directed at Jewish students, African Americans, members of the LGBTQ community, parents at school board meetings, Catholics, Christians, or anyone -is wrong and should not be tolerated. Period.

Reagan knew this and protected everyone from this hatred and violence, applying his same geopolitical mantra of “Peace Thru Strength” domestically by similarly deterring further conflict by taking swift action.

That is what clarity and courage looks like.

In 2020, presidential candidate Joe Biden posted on Twitter (now X), “Remember: every example of violence Donald Trump decries has happened on his watch. Under his leadership. During his presidency."

We should post the same about Joe Biden today. “Remember: every example of violence Joe Biden decries has happened on his watch. Under his leadership. During his presidency.”

He, Joe Biden, is what chaos and cowardice looks like.

Peggy Grande was executive assistant to Ronald Reagan and is author of “The President Will See You Now.” She served in the Trump Administration and is an international television commentator and columnist.