Our spring of inflation, alienation and a windfall

We now find ourselves in the Spring of 2022 and our World seems new, different, challenging, awesome and last but not least, expensive. It does not seem to matter that a seasoned public servant now resides in the White House. Even though executive decision making now places the nation’s interest above that of any individual’s personal bottom line, there remains a decided focus on gloom and doom aspects of life especially along this the most conservative stretch of the Mother Road. This is after all a midterm election year and our fair state is going to have not ONE but TWO U.S. Senate seats on the November ballot thanks to the retirement of Senator Jim Inhofe. That said, it seems as though every conservative (whatever that may now mean) politician’s ad blaring across the local airwaves never fails to give due deference to the 45th President and proclaims the incumbent Presidential administration to be the worst and most corrupt in history and only they the candidate can mount effective opposition to it. Over-the-top rhetoric aside, I must grudgingly admit that not all excoriating criticism is meritless even though President Biden does not deserve the blame for much of the misery through which we are all suffering. Although many economic indicators are trending in a positive direction, the immediate difficulty so many of the negatives have generated for most citizens regardless of political stripe are impossible to ignore. It seems all the gains of increased wages have not only been erased but have been consumed and eclipsed by the sudden rise in inflation. What’s more, those of us who are invested in the market are pensively waiting for it to stabilize while our retirement portfolios take a merciless beating. On a personal level, I haven’t been this concerned about market losses since the last President nearly tanked it and cost my portfolio several thousand dollars the year before I retired with his ill-advised tariff tinkering with China. In the end however, losses are losses regardless of whose watch upon which they may occur. In spite of all this I never ceased to be amazed at how so many suffering through the demands of these hard times seem compelled to go out of their way to levy blame at one person, that being the one serving as President of the United States. This phenomenon feels especially pronounced if that person is a Democrat. Anyone pumping their own gas along Old Route 66 in Tulsa appear to be perfectly content to blame these prices on Joe Biden:

I don’t recall most of the same types of people willing to lay blame the incumbent President for these gas prices back during the market instability of 2008:

It is also interesting that so many of those willing to buy the claim that Biden is responsible for everyone getting gouged at the gas pump are all too willing to give a pass to the ones deserving the larger share of the liability in the name of their own corporate bottom line:

The truth of the matter is that not everything is as nice as we all would like and perhaps a lot of things are not as bad as some continue to assert:

It is certainly apparent that it is an election year when the TV and radio airwaves become clogged with campaign ads describing in ever growing detail the evil of the party in power in Washington and the conservative orthodoxy of the candidate seeking the viewer’s vote. Along this this stretch of Old Route 66 that orthodoxy has sadly morphed into lock step MAGA talking points, chief among them the big lie that the 2020 Presidential Election was “rigged” and “stolen.” These ads serve to supply the Conservative majority in this state and elsewhere the two essentials it must have to exhort their voters to get out and vote on Election Day, those being fear and grievance. Add to that a thick layer of loathing and they can see themselves taking back the House and the Senate in November as well as expanding their supermajorities at the state level. The problem is their standard messaging habits have devolved into embracing blatant false information, a practice that has become their accepted norm for some time now. If regular loathing of the differences in them and the opposition party candidate is insufficient, then go big into the vastness of rightwing imagination. However, in doing so their followers risk alienating themselves from friends, family and associates on the other side of the political divide such that the damage they inflict may be permanent. Also, use of certain false claims could backfire and come back to not only haunt them but hamstring them at the most inopportune times. Conspiracy theories may be funny and amusing but mainstreaming them crosses a line and can prove to be quite dangerous. I would caution against using extreme accusations to paint an entire party with a broad brush. This is but one of several examples. Just understand that when you attempt to define your opposition by the one outlier you deem the furthest distance out from the accepted norm, you open yourself up to having the exact same thing done to you. It is also recommended to stick to issues sound arguments can be made to support. “The Dems are pedophiles” is not one of those given the lengthy list of Republican creeps, crumbs and convicted sex offenders, and we haven’t even come close to mentioning the Conservative Clergy!

May 2022 will perhaps go down in history as the month the Pro-Life Lobby finally got all they ever wanted since organizing after the Roe v Wade decision in 1973. The news that broke on Monday afternoon, May 2nd about Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion on Roe v Wade should have been heralded as the achievement of years of playing the long game Conservative strategy. All the legislative encroachment on abortion rights and all the abusing of established Senate norms thereby enabling the packing the Supreme Court with marginally qualified pro-life conservative judicial hacks had finally paid off in that leaked information indicated that the overturning of Roe was at hand. The means of receiving the news however tainted the moment for the Republican minority. The fact it was leaked became the headline-grabbing story of primary season! The usual suspects among the Republican pro-life caucus in Washington could not even enjoy a de facto victory moment as they were all vehemently concerned with finding out who was responsible for the leak. Like the barking dog that finally caught the car, they found themselves on the spot as to what they were going to do when Roe is overturned. Rather than create any political liability for themselves, they were able to skillfully keep the media at bay with their overblown obsession with the leak. The main backstory they were attempting to ignore with all their outrage and indignation over the integrity of the Supreme Court was the fire this news ignited under the Pro-Choice Lobby. Only the day before, the MAGA-GOP was on track to take back both the House and the Senate in November as the Democratic majority’s approval rating was underwater on enough issues to matter and there was so much dissention within its Party ranks. Admittedly, that Democrat rank-and-file malaise was due to a pervading and growing sense of disappointment in the perception of the Biden Administration’s underachievement and lack of follow-through on so many progressive issues. It however very likely evaporated instantly as every pro-choice voter in the nation was momentarily dumbstruck but soon realized that any ideation of staying on the sideline in a midterm election year suddenly evaporated. It is fair to say that a decided majority of heretofore lukewarm supporters of Roe who would never support a 100% ban on abortion would never sit still for such a policy. In a whirlwind of fear, loathing and legitimate grievance, Pro-Choice America seemed instantly motivated to get out the vote. That counts as a huge windfall for the Democrats, to be fueled by the same base elements of fear and grievance that has propelled so many Tea Party-MAGA Republicans into office. This should be every bit as fun as it is interesting and frightening. It is my personal hope that our electoral system still has its trademark integrity where everything works and nothing in terms of outcome is certain. Hang onto your hats everyone. This 2022 rollercoaster is going to be hard pressed to stay on the tracks!