In the 75 years that I have lived as an American citizen and service member, I can recall only one other time in my life that the word “shortage” was of significance to me. It was the 1970’s and Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States. Long lines formed at the gas pump … there were odd and even days depending on the last digit of your license plate number. I was a soldier serving in Germany at the time and there, we were confronted with “driverless Sundays.” There were no cars moving on Sunday and the Autobahn became walking paths.
Interest rates were 16%, our hostages were still being held by the Iranians and the country, according to Jimmy Carter, was in a malaise. This left us all with the clear belief that Jimmy Carter was the worst President in US history.
As that era faded in our rear-view mirrors, I never thought that I would ever be subject to such an episode again. Reagan pulled us out of our collective malaise and once again, the good times started to roll in America. The Bush Presidents, Clinton, and even Obama, kept us on an upward trajectory as a country. I did not always like the policies that were put forth by the Dems, but looking back, it has to be concluded that the country was moving generally in the right direction. Then along came Trump ---mean tweets aside, the policies enacted by his Administration took us in a new direction. Regulations that were a detriment to small business were eliminated. The corporate tax rate was lowered and corporations that had off-shored their businesses returned to America’s shores. The search for oil and natural gas in America was unleashed and we became energy independent almost overnight. The good times started to accelerate and all Americans were benefiting.
Shortages simply did not exist. Not at the pump and not at the grocery store. We all know what happened then --- the COVID pandemic hit the United States and things began to change quickly. I am not going to recount what the pandemic did to us as a country. However, what I would like to focus on is the 2020 political race, which was going on simultaneously. It was a political race like none other in our history. We were mystified by a candidate that never left his basement. We asked ourselves, “how could such a candidate be successful? While we were wondering how all this was going to work – THE WORDS THAT THE CANDIDATE WAS SPEAKING WERE NOT BEING HEARD BY THE AMERICAN PUBLIC!
Throughout the campaign of 2020, Joe Biden told us exactly what he was going to do to this country … he made it clear that, if he was elected, he would go about fundamentally changing our country.
And the Trump angst in this country was so strong that America was not listening. Biden told us on the Democrat debate stage that he was going to be the most Progressive President in the history of the nation. Progressive … sounds like Progress … but the thesaurus identifies other terms for progressivism … person or group favoring usually radical change, left-winger, leftist, liberal. America was not listing!
Biden told us that he was going to put the oil and gas industry out of business. In March of 2021, the Wall Street Journal published the following … Gasoline prices are higher than we have ever seen. The government reported a year-over-year inflation rate of 7.9% for February, the highest since 1982. Americans need relief, and one thing stands in the way: President Biden’s unwillingness to reverse course on his administration’s commitment to put the American oil-and-gas industry out of business at the consumer’s expense. America was not listening.
Biden told us he was going to transform the transportation system and infrastructure with a focus on Green Energy, Forward to February 2022, the White House told us … President Biden campaigned on a bold vision of tackling the climate crisis with the urgency that science demands by seizing the opportunity to build a strong domestic energy sector that can manufacture and deploy clean energy for the benefit of all Americans—with lower costs for families, good-paying jobs for workers, and healthier air and cleaner water for communities. A bold vision indeed as it drives the middle class to the poor house – creating shortages across all sectors of the economy and … America was not listening.
We have already started the process of sorting out presidential candidates for the 2024 election and we must ask the question – Is American listing? Truly listening?
When the candidates start to speak, no matter the subject, they will tell us just what they intend to do with regard to that subject. If we hear, truly hear, what they say and recognize that the words have meaning, maybe we won’t miss the “Punch Line” … like “I’m going to shut down the fossil fuel industry in America and I’m going to do it with the stroke of a pen on my first day in office” --- making us dependent on the foreign oil and gas.
Biden said it during the campaign and America didn’t hear it --- and if they did hear it, they did not believe it. It is time to listen and start taking politicians at their word … all politicians.
There is one bright spot in this entire kafuffle --- Jimmy Carter has lived long enough to see the title of Worst President in the History of America passed from him to Joe Biden.