By Gerard Baker | The Wall Street Journal
President Biden delivers an address to the nation on the first anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown at the White House, March 11. - PHOTO: CHRIS KLEPONIS/POOL/ZUMA PRESS
A bit of humility about what Washington could achieve would have served the president well.
Say what you will, but Joe Biden’s first year
in office has one crowning achievement to its name. It has provided a
real-time, data-rich, high-intensity and ultimately devastating case study in
the defining conceit of progressive politics: the idea that government is
the solution.
Mr. Biden laid out this persistent delusion
of all true-left believers when he gave a prime-time television address to the nation in March, on the first
anniversary of the Covid lockdowns.
“Look, we know what we need to do to beat this virus,” he
said: “Tell the truth. Follow the scientists and the science. Work together.
Put trust and faith in our government to fulfill its most important function,
which is protecting the American people.”
It was an instructive comment. There it was,
every item of the progressive creed, every instinct of the liberal Democratic
mind, laid bare:
Hubris: “We know what to
do.” The unchallengeable authority of technocratic bureaucracy: “Follow the
scientists.” The superior virtue of collectivism over individual enterprise:
“Work together.”
Above all, that unerring belief in the
capacity of government, which commands our “trust and faith.”
When the president made those remarks,
527,726 Covid-19 deaths had been reported in America. We
know the number precisely because he told us, citing the card he said he
carried with him every day. If he still has that card in his pocket, it will
now register a number above 800,000. How can this be? Didn’t he say he knew
what to do? Didn’t we just have to follow the science and trust the government?
Calling this out isn’t to blame Mr. Biden for those
deaths as he blamed President Trump for a smaller number. It’s to make a wider
philosophical point. The government’s ability to do much of anything useful,
which is attenuated at the best of times, was overstated again and again by the
president and his Democratic allies. The most important advance—by a
mile—in the fight against Covid-19 has been the development by
profit-seeking companies of vaccines and therapies. Yes, those same companies
that progressives want to shackle with regulations imposed by their all-knowing
government.
The virus is the most visible refutation of
progressive vanity this year, but by no means the only one.
Those liberal geniuses who told us they could manage the
economy like a well-honed machine have managed to create the highest
inflation in nearly 40 years, eroding real wages and imperiling economic
stability. The brilliant ideologues who run our cities have presided
over a surge in violent crime that has reduced life for many residents to a
real-life dystopia. Those omniscient technocrats who know how to devise and
implement a humane and functioning immigration policy have left us with a
border in name only and chaos and lawlessness to accompany it. The
strategic geniuses who told us “America is back” produced a debacle in
Afghanistan whose full ramifications for U.S. security we haven’t even begun to
see.
And just this past weekend we saw how those masters of
Washington’s legislative process couldn’t craft a bill that would bring along
their own party to support it. It took the moderate Sen. Joe Manchin to save
the progressives from the consequences of their ideological arrogance and
governing ineptitude.
In short, the party that constantly seeks control over
our lives is now governing—or failing to govern—a nation that is spinning
wildly out of control.
Who could possibly have seen this coming? It’s one thing
to have overarching faith in your government’s ability to do things if you’re
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Napoleon Bonaparte or Caesar Augustus. But Joe Biden?
It’s not too harsh a judgment to say that this is a man
who has risen to the top of American public life without a trace of
accomplishment. When you’ve been in national politics for almost 50 years,
you ought to have achieved something, if only by accident. But this journeyman
politician, when he wasn’t getting almost all the big issues wrong, was largely
a bystander. He is now a husk of a leader, a dangerously debilitated figure,
who oscillates between displays of vacuous incoherence and weird, angry
outbursts, like a confused old man at the wrong bus stop.
Meanwhile, a heartbeat and a spine-chilling cackle away
from the presidency, is another living rebuke to the idea that government is
virtuous and wise. Vice President Kamala Harris has
demonstrated, evidently to the alarm of much of her own staff, that she is
simply another of Mr. Biden’s many mistakes—perhaps the biggest one yet. It
is a dismaying state of affairs that we must all pray nightly for the continued
health of an inept president to avert the calamity of a worse one.
A year ago a bit of wise humility about what he—and government—could achieve would have served the president-elect well. Instead, in less than a year, we have an object lesson in why progressive governance is an oxymoron.
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Joe Biden's economic approval now worse than
Jimmy Carter's, who lost in a landslide election to Ronald Reagan
BY CHRIS ENLOE | BLAZE MEDIA
Photo:
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Joe Biden's economic ratings are officially
worse than Jimmy Carter's, an ominous sign for Biden's re-election hopes and
overall presidential legacy.
What do the numbers show?
According to the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden's economic approval rating among
registered voters is just 45%, while his economic disapproval rating is 54% — a
net approval rating of -9%.
CNN noted that its poll number is actually four points
better than the average of all economic approval ratings surveyed in December,
which stands at -13%. That means Biden currently boasts the "the lowest
net economic rating of any president at this point through their first term
since at least Jimmy Carter in 1977," CNN explained.
But it gets worse.
Not only does Biden sport the lowest net economic rating
one year into his presidency since Carter, but it's 18 points worse than the
average president's at this point in the presidency. According to CNN, the
average president boasts a +5% economic approval rating at the one-year mark.
Other important data from the poll:
- 75%
of registered voters said they are worried about the economy, while just
25% said they are not worried about the economy;
- 63%
of registered voters described the current economic conditions as
"poor," while just 37% described them as "good";
- 45%
of registered voters believe Biden's policies have "worsened economic
conditions in the country," compared to just 30% who believe his
policies have improved the economy;
- 66%
of registered voters said they "have some doubts and
reservations" about Biden, while just 34% said Biden "is a
leader you can trust."
Additionally, 67% of respondents told pollsters that
government spending is a "major problem," 70% said high gas costs are
a "major problem," 77% said the rising cost of housing is a
"major problem," 79% said supply-chain disruptions are a "major
problem," and 80% said rising cost of food and everyday goods is a
"major problem."
What does this mean for Biden?
If Biden does not find a solution, and fast, his
presidential legacy may become the same as Carter's — or worse.
Not only is Carter known for not solving the economic
crisis of the late 1970s, but Carter is known for being on the losing side of
one of America's greatest presidential election landslides. In 1980, Republican
Ronald Reagan won an astounding 489 Electoral College votes, while Carter — the
incumbent — won just 49.
Through polling, Americans are continually showing that
the economy is the most important issue for them today. If Biden doesn't turn
the tide soon, Democrats stand to face not only electoral disaster in 2022, but
in 2024, too.
__________________
VACCINATION AND THE CONTEMPTIBLE DR. FAUCI
BY JOHN HINDERAKER | POWERLINE
The Democratic Party has become a vast hate machine. With the Biden administration’s policies a shambles of failure, Democrats try to distract voters by stirring up hate against various vulnerable groups. In some cases, that means companies and industries, but the administration’s favorite whipping boys are the unvaccinated.
To hear the Biden administration tell it, the minority of
Americans who, for whatever reason, have not been fully vaccinated are
responsible for the fact that most covid infections now occur among those
who have been fully vaccinated. If you can figure out that
logic, let me know, because I can’t.
Political hack Anthony Fauci, speaking for Joe
Biden, told
us to shun unvaccinated relatives by banning them from our holiday
celebrations:
Guest host Alicia Menendez said, “Dr. Fauci,
you know very well, there are people deciding whether they’re going to get on
planes to be with their families for the holidays. What is your advice?”
Fauci said, “Certainly any kind of travel
increases the risk. If you are careful and prudent, and the travel you feel is
important, necessary travel, like seeing a member of the family that you have
not seen for a long time if you are vaccinated and boosted, and the people that
you are visiting are vaccinated and boosted. You can get on a plane and travel,
so long as you’re very prudent at the airport of wearing a mask.”
Menendez said, “If someone in your family is
not vaccinated, should you ask them not to show up?”
Fauci said, “Yes, I would do that. I think
we’re dealing with a serious enough situation right now that if there’s an
unvaccinated person, I would say, ‘I’m very sorry, but not this time, maybe
another time when this is all over.’”
Since covid is now the common cold, there
will never be a time when “this is all over,” if liberals get their way.
Meanwhile, here in Minnesota, far-left
Governor Tim Walz, vaxxed, boosted, and living in a bubble, has announced that
he has covid. Heh. Who can resist a bit of schadenfreude?
But of course there is nothing surprising about this. Vaccinated people catch
covid and spread it. The statistics suggest, I think, that most covid
infections are now spread from one vaccinated person to another vaccinated
person.
So can we finally stop demonizing the unvaccinated
minority? No, actually, we can’t: because without demonizing others,
the Democratic Party is out of ammo.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/vaccination-and-the-contemptible-dr-fauci.php
