Did you ever think that post-Covid America would be so . . . chaotic? All President Biden had to do was roll out the vaccines and let America enjoy a new “era of good feelings,” savoring the joys of boring, normal life. Instead, as spring 2022 approaches summer, Americans are grappling with rolling electricity blackouts, runaway inflation, high gas prices, high food prices, supply-chain problems, product unavailability, and more than 200,000 migrants coming to the southern border per month. Democratic control of government did not replace chaos with order; it just traded one form of chaos for another.
Democrats’ Irrational Midterm Hopes amid National Chaos
A reader writes in about yesterday’s Morning Jolt, focusing on the long-simmering shortage of infant formula:
My daughter E is fed by gastronomy tube due to medical issues. We were on Elecare, but a while back had to switch to another brand, as Elecare was unavailable.
Two weeks ago, we called our formula provider for her monthly delivery of the new brand and were basically told they have no idea when it would be available and can’t give us any date at all.
Through the kindness of friends, we’re going through what cans we have left, and then we’ll switch to yet a third brand which she may or may not tolerate. You cannot imagine how frustrating this is as a parent. And we aren’t the only ones. There’s lots of parents of kids out there who need these special formulas who are just screaming for help, and we feel like no one’s heard us until now.
I hope something changes because of this attention; I really do. Because this can’t go on.
Maybe you aren’t affected by the shortage of infant formula. But there’s a good chance one or another shortage has affected your life recently.
We keep hearing that the supply-chain issues are a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. But the biggest impact of the pandemic on our lives came from March 2020 to about summer 2020. And we’re now in mid-May 2022, and certain supply-chain problems are much worse than they were in 2020 — and they don’t always involve products that are shipped through locked-down Shanghai (still!) or through a backed-up California port.
(The U.S. banned the import of European baby formulas, even though in many cases European regulations and standards for formula are actually tougher than the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s. When U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents find European baby formula, they seize it. While all parents should consult their pediatricians on what formula is best for their children, you may have noticed that European babies are drinking these formulas and are growing just fine.)
Meanwhile, auto dealers have significantly fewer new cars on their lots. (Someone I know in Northern Virginia recently wanted to purchase a Nissan Altima and was told that the nearest new model for sale was in New Jersey.) Getting your car repaired after a minor crash can take months because of a shortage of parts.
Costco is limiting purchases of pet food. The fertilizer shortage is going to reduce crop yields.
Perhaps the ongoing labor shortage has affected your life. The U.S. has 11.5 million unfilled jobs, and there are currently 5.6 million more job openings than there are unemployed Americans. President Biden continues to travel the country, promising his policies will create new jobs. For once, the country doesn’t need more new jobs. It needs more new workers.
The administration seems convinced that, at some point, the public will give it credit for the high rate of job growth since Biden took office. But there are reasons that Biden’s job approval remains low, and one of them is his handling of the economy. CNN recently characterized Americans’ views of the economy as “dismal.” This is not because of the overwhelming persuasive power of Fox News, and it’s not because Republicans are Jedi-mind-tricking Americans into thinking the economy is worse than it really is. It’s because so many Americans feel an intensifying economic squeeze.
In that last CNN poll, “only 19 percent of Americans think Biden’s policies have improved economic conditions in the US, with 26 percent saying they’ve had no effect and 55 percent saying they’ve made conditions worse. . . . Half of Americans call the economy the most important national issue (50 percent). . . . Most Americans say economic conditions have led them to reduce nonessential spending (63 percent), change their grocery-buying habits (63 percent) and cut back significantly on driving (54 percent).”
Your life is undoubtedly influenced by the worst inflation in 40 years, which current projections indicate will remain elevated through 2024.
Your life is undoubtedly influenced, in one way or another, by runaway gas prices. Nationwide, the average price of gas is $4.37 for a gallon of regular — 27 cents more than a month ago, and $1.43 more than a year ago — and it’s only set to increase going forward. The American Automobile Association projects that, “since supply remains tight and the market remains highly volatile, crude prices will likely continue to fluctuate this week, potentially pushing pump prices higher.”
The cost of diesel fuel keeps reaching new record highs, as well, making the transportation of goods even more expensive, with east coast inventories of diesel plunging to their lowest seasonal level since government records started more than 30 years ago. As our Dominic Pino explained, “diesel is more important than gasoline for supply chains, since it powers the trucks and freight trains that deliver our goods. As the price of diesel rises, life gets harder for trucking companies and railroads, transportation costs increase, and those costs can get passed on to consumers as higher prices for a variety of goods.”
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that:
From California to Texas to Indiana, electric-grid operators are warning that power-generating capacity is struggling to keep up with demand, a gap that could lead to rolling blackouts during heat waves or other peak periods as soon as this year. . . . The challenge is that wind and solar farms—which are among the cheapest forms of power generation—don’t produce electricity at all times and need large batteries to store their output for later use. While a large amount of battery storage is under development, regional grid operators have lately warned that the pace may not be fast enough to offset the closures of traditional power plants that can work around the clock.
And then there’s the U.S.–Mexico border, where now more than 200,000 migrants are arriving per month, and more than 70,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived in the fiscal year that started October 1. The Biden administration continues to believe that it can say, “Don’t come,” and that will outweigh the discussion of a path to citizenship for those who enter the country illegally.
Meanwhile, violent crime remains high in many communities. “Murder rose by nearly 30 percent in 2020 according to data from the FBI and it rose roughly 6 percent in 2021 relative to 2020 in 99 cities with available data.” So far, it’s growing at the same pace in 2022.
High crime, bigger crowds of migrants at the border, rolling electricity blackouts, runaway inflation, high gas prices, high food prices, supply-chain problems, and the unavailability of key products like infant formula . . . given these political conditions, how can so many Democrats believe that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, if it happens, will be the dominant issue in this year’s midterm elections?
In many people’s eyes, Biden was elected to get the country “back to normal.” But despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is now almost a non-factor in daily American life, our lives in late spring of 2022 don’t feel normal. In fact, they still feel quite far from it. Democratic control of government did not replace chaos with order; it just traded one form of chaos for another.
The details of this ugly portrait may change between now and November. But it is hard to see Americans feeling good about the state of the country when they cast their ballots in the midterms.
Little-Known Also-Ran Candidate Issues Statement; Film at 11
Someone once observed that you shouldn’t get too excited about any headline that says, “GOP lawmaker says [blah blah blah]” or “Democratic lawmaker says [blah blah blah].” If the statement came from, say, Marco Rubio, the headline would declare “Rubio says [blah blah blah].” If the headline is using the term “[party identifier] lawmaker says,” it means the person who said it is almost certainly someone you’ve never heard of, and in a country with 7,383 state legislators and even more local officials, you can find any old schmo saying just about anything. It’s not necessarily news. National news articles that amount to “obscure local or state official says crazy thing” are high-profile journalistic nutpicking — picking the most extreme members of a group and pretending they represent the group as a whole in order to discredit them. And if the headline is ‘GOP candidate says,’ well . . . all you need to do to become a candidate for office in most jurisdictions is stand outside a grocery store and get people to sign a petition that will put you on the ballot. If you’re a journalist, you can probably find candidates saying the moon is made of green cheese, or whatever bizarre belief you wish to spotlight.
The headline of the top article on Memeorandum this morning is, “Senate GOP candidates say national abortion ban is ‘possible,’” and it links to KASW out of Phoenix.
The key paragraphs from article:
The former state lawmaker and current Corporation Commissioner, Justin Olsen, sent a text message saying he supports a federal ban. “I look forward to introducing the Heartbeat Bill in the U.S. Senate. We must protect all innocent life,” he said in the text message. The Heartbeat bill bans abortions after six weeks before most women know they are pregnant.
The other candidates in the GOP Senate primary, Mark Brnovich, Jim Lamon, and Blake Masters, were mum on the issue for now. However, during an interview in September, Masters did suggest Congress might need to get involved.
The latest Arizona GOP Senate primary poll, from Trafalgar: Jim Lamon 25 percent, Mark Brnovich 24 percent, Blake Masters 19 percent, Michael McGuire 8 percent, Justin Olsen 3 percent, and undecided 20 percent.
So, the only guy who makes a statement on this issue is sitting at 3 percent in the most recent poll of the race, yet he somehow is supposed to speak for ‘Senate GOP candidates’ as a whole.
ADDENDUM: In yesterday’s Three Martini Lunch podcast, Greg and I observed the oddities of the Pennsylvania Senate race. I noted that, when the likely Democratic nominee looks like he’s in a biker gang but would vote like Bernie Sanders, Republicans’ margin for error in picking a nominee of their own is small. Your mileage may vary, but from where I sit, Mehmet Oz has been a Republican for about 20 minutes, there’s considerable evidence he is a quack, he’s uncomfortably friendly with the current authoritarian government of Turkey, and he is not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. And now we know Oz has voted in Turkish elections in recent years but skipped GOP primaries. “Elect Oprah’s doctor!” feels like a heavy lift in the general election.
And tomorrow, assuming no unexpected complications, the Three Martini Lunch podcast will have its third-ever guest. Stay tuned!