Spatial disorientation. That’s what it’s called when pilots lose their bearings in flight.
Senses lie. Distances deceive. Inexperienced pilots panic, fixate on their gauges and lose control of their planes. A good pilot knows the only way to regain true direction is to focus on the horizon.
It’s a pretty simple lesson. It’s also one, as Wednesday’s news about record inflation makes clear, that President Biden needs to learn.
How did Joe Biden lose his bearings? Easy. He became something he wasn’t.
The voters who supported Biden knew what they wanted. The man who sought to “make America normal again” wasn’t supposed to rock the boat.
He wasn’t the next JFK or FDR or LBJ. He didn’t have to be.
Candidate Biden understood that. President Biden doesn’t.
A narrow victory based on a promise of steadiness morphed into a fantasy mandate with a price tag in the trillions – all while ignoring the historic inflation, which polls consistently show is what voters actually care about. Now Biden’s approval rating has plunged to 38 percent, and his neighboring state of Virginia just elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years.
The new FDR is quickly beginning to look like the new Jimmy Carter.
Like Carter, Biden often plays the bystander. He lets events control him. When the nation looks to him for a solution, he offers a shrug, glazed eyes, and excuses. He sounds less like a head of state than a high schooler who forgot his homework. The leader of the free world declines to lead.
Worse, Biden shirks responsibility. Our plentiful problems are almost never acknowledged. But when they finally are, it turns into a master class in gaslighting.
Inflation? It’s a “high class problem”. No, wait. It’s actually not as bad as you think.
Supply chain issues? Relax. It’s just a bunch of treadmills.
Border crisis? Well, you see, it’s actually a challenge. Not a crisis.
The only things the White House is actually proactive in addressing are spending trillions in a liberal grab bag disguised as the Build Back Better Plan — that and musing about racist bridges.
It’s no wonder voters don’t think Biden is concerned with the issues that are affecting them. According to NBC News, 57 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy. That same poll shows 68 percent of Americans believe the economy is getting worse.
This feeling was perfectly encapsulated Wednesday in Baltimore when Biden marveled at the cost of gas. The president of the United States turned into a hermit before our very eyes.
Biden’s 2020 victory may have obscured it, but the idea there’s some national Democratic mandate is pure fallacy.
Let’s remember, outside of Biden, Democrats have gotten their clocks cleaned for the last several years. Republicans over performed in 2020, made huge gains in the House and almost hung onto the Senate. Republican Glenn Youngkin is now the governor-elect of a state that went for Biden by 10 points one year ago. And now, most polling shows, Republicans are almost guaranteed to take back the House next year, with control of the Senate inching ever closer too.
One of those Democrats who is primed for a career change next year is Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va. She represents a moderate district which Youngkin won. She hit the nail on the head last week when she said, “Nobody elected [Biden] to be FDR.”
For pilots and politicians, disorientation can be hard to shake. To fight it, they need only to keep their eyes fixed forward and trust their compass.
As the White House careens from crisis to crisis, Joe Biden is stuck dreaming of his own New Deal. If he doesn’t regain his bearings soon, he’s in for a heckuva crash.
