by Jeffrey A. Rendall
Every single one of senile president Joe Biden’s struggles was easily foreseeable.
It’s a bold statement, since many if not most of the issues that confront a new president can’t always be seen from a distance. If it can be said that elections are always about the future, it’s just as true to claim that the future would almost certainly be shaped by yet unseen events and circumstances that no politician could forthrightly discuss in the lead-up to his victory.
One shining example was George W. Bush and the 9/11/01 Islamic terrorist attack that destroyed both towers of New York’s World Trade Center and one section of the enormous Pentagon building (killing almost 3000 people between the two sites). I don’t recall that terrorism and how the new president would prosecute a war overseas was widely discussed in the 2000 campaign between Bush and Big Bubba Bill Clinton’s veep, the climate obsessed Al Gore, yet a little over half a year into Bush’s first term, foreign and military policy was all anyone was talking about. It was surprising and upsetting. Arbitrary, almost. But today’s American debt and inflation catastrophe was clearly evident in the 2020 campaign. And Democrats screwed it up anyway.
Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign strategy was primarily a game of hide-the-candidate from the public. Using COVID-19 as a cover, the Democrat brains locked the would-be nominee out of view, often for days at a time without explanation of his activities or whereabouts. Senile Joe conducted few interviews, relatively few campaign appearances and let congressional Democrats and liberal media talkers do the canvassing for him.
Recall that Democrats were so afraid that Biden would catch the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, or Wuhan, if you prefer) virus that they all-but cancelled their nominating convention. Instead of live events, truckloads of confetti, screaming partisans, live presentations at the podium and the usual in-person acceptance speeches to packed arenas with thousands of attendees, they shifted to small, practically empty venues where the politicians’ words echoed off the walls. Remember how Dr. Jill Biden made her speech at an abandoned school? It was spooky.
Biden and Democrats demagogued the COVID issue to death, state legislatures caved to paranoia propagated by the government-paid “science” experts and allowed for universal mail-in balloting. Lots of questionable vote counting behavior took place after Election Day and the rest is history.
Two years after the COVID lockdowns were first instituted at the direction of the now notorious Dr. Anthony Fauci, Americans are stuck with a president who clearly isn’t up to the job. Biden still maintains the light schedule he initiated during his 2020 campaign, closes media access down early on many days and makes many fewer appearances than did his predecessor, Donald Trump. As would be expected, senile Joe’s age-related issues aren’t improving, either.
Voters are noticing Biden’s shortcomings. What they probably don’t realize is how easy Biden’s foibles were to predict two years ago. Opinion surveys show Americans are not anxious for Joe to extend his stay in the White House, either. Katherine Doyle reported at The Washington Examiner:
“Half of America’s voters doubt President Joe Biden will seek a second term in 2024, according to a new poll, with some Democrats questioning whether he is too old to mount another run at the White House.
“Biden, who is 79 years old, has weathered a series of crises since taking office, marked by a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, a chaotic drawdown from Afghanistan, and Russia’s war on Ukraine, prompting people to question whether he can continue apace through another six years…
“Approval of Biden’s record dovetails with the Democratic Party’s difficulties on the economy, crime, and other policy issues, a potential challenge as the party attempts to defend narrow majorities in the midterm elections this year. In a worrying sign for Democrats, voters said they think the Republican Party can better rebuild the economy and improve the country’s quality of life, while reducing crime and inflation, both surging over the last year.”
Yes indeed. It’s only natural for voters to favor Republicans on the major issues of the day, not because GOP leaders have offered solid proposals and policies to solve problems, but because senile Joe, Nancy Pelosi and “Chucky” Schumer have been so awful in governing. The fallout from the disastrous 2020 election is unmistakable everywhere. Democrats saw complete control of government as their big chance to go wild and turn America into a “woke” socialist dystopia of federally controlled behavior and regulated speech. Thankfully they’ve largely failed in their mission.
The opposition to Biden’s agenda from Joe Manchin was easy to see in advance. The West Virginian hails from a region that went overwhelmingly for Trump, so he wasn’t about to lend his vote for “climate change” fantasy fixes that would practically put his entire state’s workforce in the unemployment line. Manchin has also been to the right of the leftists on cultural issues over the years, so what did they expect?
2021’s and 2022’s significant spike in inflation was also a no-brainer. All anyone had to do was see Democrats advocating for dumping trillions of borrowed dollars into the economy and the spending spree was as certain to follow as the sun rising tomorrow morning in the eastern sky. Give people “free” money and it has to go somewhere.
There are only three things you can do with money — spend it, save it or invest it. Most ordinary folks opt for the first choice. Inflation resulted.
As a side note, it always cracks me up when there’s a news report on the inflation rate and the government indicates that the percentage calculation does not include volatile commodities like fuel and food. Maybe it’s because demand is inelastic on these types of things. I can see where food might be omitted from the figures because edibles could be subject to shortages or gluts on certain items. During the Great Depression, for example, there was so much milk that the price dropped to near zero.
But fuel prices are intricately tied to inflation since they impact practically everything in society. Excluding gasoline prices from inflation makes no sense whatsoever, because fuel and energy is almost universal in a modern economy. It’s no stretch to claim that all items in a store are delivered on a truck of some kind, and if diesel fuel prices skyrocket — along with all other fuel types — the cost of bringing those goods to market goes up accordingly.
So does the production of food, which is also heavily dependent on energy sources. If the farmer and rancher sees increases at the wholesale or consumer level, they’re passing along those unfortunate circumstances to the buyers of their products. I’ve mentioned beef prices in the past, but with everything in the store subject to the “tax” of increased energy costs, prices rise across the board. (Note: The producer price index just went up to 10%, the highest in the history of the index.)
Democrats should’ve seen it coming and scaled back their spending demands. To his credit, Manchin saw the writing on the wall and bolted against Biden’s horrific agenda.
The current oil crisis was also heartily predictable. As they always do, Biden and his fellow Democrats campaigned on combatting “climate change” and a nationwide switch to “green” energy such as wind and solar, all with the goal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases to halt or reverse the purported warming of the earth. Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline and ended drilling in Alaska. His administration wouldn’t issue new drilling or fracking permits on federal land.
Almost immediately the supply went down. At the same time, hypocritical Europeans looked to Russia to supply their oil and natural gas. Biden went soft on the Nordstream 2 pipeline, reversing a Trump policy restricting its development. Oil prices steadily escalated. Americans saw increases at the pump. None of this was a surprise.
Why weren’t energy and inflation bigger issues in 2020? Because Democrats were fixated on blaming Trump for the CCP virus and the illnesses and deaths that resulted from the aggressive new flu bug. Trillions were devoted to fighting it and keeping the economy afloat while school kids were confined to their homes and working people weren’t allowed to do their jobs.
What about unforeseen consequences? What if even a portion of the money Congress tossed at COVID was devoted to other types of medical research? If a CCP virus flu vaccine could be developed in less than a year’s time, what about new treatments for chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes or cancer? How many lives will not be saved because the establishment scared people over the easily contractible virus?
The Afghanistan debacle was also easy to see in advance. Biden was correct to bring the American troops home, but shouldn’t the remaining American interests have been safeguarded first? Didn’t the regional experts state that the Afghan government wasn’t ready to assume control over places like Bagram Air Force Base?
Americans don’t trust Joe Biden to handle the most pressing issues of the day because he’s incompetent and out-of-touch. Former President Trump said it would happen, and he was right. Biden and the Democrats’ 2020 platform rested on a bed of lies and now Americans are paying — literally — the price of their mistake. Let’s hope it’s not too late to correct it.
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Joe Biden economy
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Democrat welfare bill
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Build Back Better
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13 House Republicans Infrastructure bill
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Kyrsten Sinema
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Joe Manchin
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RINOs
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Marjorie Taylor Green
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Kevin McCarthy
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Mitch McConnell
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2022 elections
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Donald Trump
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2024 presidential election
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Jeffrey A. Rendall reports for ConservativeHQ.
