Captain Chaos
Or... Bidenhausen By Proxy
Memorial Day Weekend just came and went.
The unofficial start of summer.
Or, at least, the "summer driving season."
Average price of gas in the US as I type this? $4.62.
Average price of gas a year ago today? $3.05.
Average price of gas two years ago today? $1.97
Our President has helpfully informed us that this is Putin's fault. And, if not Vlad, then the greedy oil companies that decided, in a fit of pique, to do something they didn't do across all the years when gas was cheaper (that is to say, always): get together, twist their Snidely Whiplash mustaches, and gouge us at the pump.
And, by the way, none of it is his fault.
Joliet Jake Blues was more convincing.
Gas prices, the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, the giant mess at the southern border, spiking inflation, rising crime, supply chain problems, racial and cultural animus, institutional distrust, lockdown woes, and the government's pandemic response all have several things in common.
The Administration did things that exacerbated the problem.
The Administration didn't do things that would remediate the problem.
The Administration pretended otherwise in both.
Biden and his mouthpieces lie, deflect, obfuscate, and equivocate - constantly - to perpetuate these pretenses.
This isn't mere harm from inattention.
Look at every single one of these problems and many more, and you will find a list of deliberate actions, and deliberate rejection of remedies, at their core.
If the goal was to sow chaos and thereby seek an end to the American experiment, I'd say he's doing a decent job.
I don't grant him such motivation, though. I think it more apt he is anchored to some sort of savior complex, of the sort that motivates those of whom Thomas Sowell spoke in writing The Vision of the Anointed:
Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
Everything we see going on can be explained by "we are fixing what's broken, in a way that makes us feel good about ourselves."
Spending endless buckets of Other People's Money, imposing their will on every aspect of our lives, declaring "this nation shall be Green," no matter the cost or impossibility, refusing to budge off any leftist policy position (see: Long Beach Port bottleneck, attributable to green and union rules; see: the southern border chaos; see: spiking gas prices - no drilling allowed), scolding us and calling us vicious slurs when we don't meekly go along... I could go on all day.
The few in his party who've dared risk crossing the leadership have saved the party - and the nation - from worse. Imagine if Manchin hadn't killed Build Back Better, how much worse inflation would be? Imagine if Sinema hadn't - so far - refused to kill the filibuster, what other awful policies would have been imposed?
But, we continue to hear insistence that the remedy to what ails us is more of the same. It's as if Biden wants to treat a sick nation by making it sicker, so that he can continue to minister to its ailments.
Given the 'white knight syndrome' that suffuses leftism today, producing social justice warriors, cancel culture, safe spaces, the woke-industrial complex, and the like, and that this constituency has become the heart of the Democratic Party, it's no surprise that Biden and his staff/handlers would exhibit such behaviors.
After the mid-term elections, when the nation rejects Biden's party and flips Congress back to the GOP, Democrats have an opportunity to reset and realign. Clinton did it in 1994, with great success. To do so, however, they will have to reject both Bidenomics and the Green agenda. While the Left's wild-eyed harridans will scream bloody murder, it's the only way to fulfill the promise that the party made going into the 2020 election. It's time for liberals to kick the Left off their team. Oh, and stop repeating Biden’s lies - about gas prices and everything else.
We were promised a return to normalcy, to a moderate hand, to bipartisanship and cross-aisle comity.
Instead we got Captain Chaos, a man intent on out-doing his former boss's progressiveness... and out wacky-ing and out-lying his predecessor. For all Trump's personal excesses and failings (and his post-loss lunacy), his policies were pretty tame stuff. Some good, some bad, but none really outside the rails of normalcy. Biden, on the other hand, saw those rails, and smashed the juggernaut of government right through them.
Chaos, indeed. Create problems so that they can be solved. Or, as if not more likely, simply ignore the laws of unintended consequences and believe that you can "make it so" by saying so.
As for gas prices? Joe has deigned to release some oil from the strategic reserve, may suspend the "summer formulation" mandates, and is going to let us put more corn in our gas tanks. But, drill some more? Help get more refineries on line? Rescind some of the dozens of anti-oil policies he's imposed? Fat chance of that.
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Yours in liberty,
Peter.
The perfect example of this was on full display when Biden (or whoever actually writes them) tweeted out the number of infant formula bottles they have imported (actually commitments for importation). They were seemingly bragging about their response to a crisis of their own making. The lack of self awareness is staggering.
But the current economic situation was nothing if not predictable. When you hire nothing but academic professors and career bureaucrats (i.e. people who have never run a business or even held a private sector job) to run a country's economy, bad things are bound to happen.
“Everything we see going on can be explained by ‘we are fixing what's broken, in a way that makes us feel good about ourselves.’”