Our bargain for normal is failing

 Our bargain for normal is failing

Washington Examiner 

September 03, 2021 01:40 PM

NORMALVILLE, Pennsylvania — Leading into Election Day last year, two of the biggest reasons people gave in interviews for voting for Joe Biden were to sense a return to normal and a little empathy for their struggles. 

In short, they wanted their lives to reflect the bucolic scene this Fayette County town evoked after nearly a year of a deadly pandemic that had turned their lives upside down and took loved ones. They also said they were exhausted by then-President Donald Trump’s comportment. 

So people sent a message to Washington with their vote, and Biden won. 

In traditional Washington fashion, Biden has ignored that message voters sent and delivered the opposite. In less than seven months, we have found that Biden is far from that empathetic persona he has crafted over the years, and we have not returned to anything near normal. 

And Biden lies. Not tiny little lies, but ones that affect events that are deeply tragic. Last week, he told leaders in the Jewish community that he visited the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were slaughtered during a service in 2018. 

Synagogue officials said he was never there. 

One can only guess he said this as an attempt to continue the manufactured empathy he allegedly possesses. Forgetfulness is not an excuse anyone should accept. 

Nor is it normal. 

In fact, the only thing the Biden presidency has done most effectively is prove that we are not on the path to normality under his administration. 

From the uneven overall economy to soaring inflation to the humiliating debacle in Afghanistan, and from Biden's insistence to spend our money like a drunken sailor to the crisis at the Mexican border that he has blatantly ignored and to how he has politicized the pandemic: None of this is normal, none of this promotes stability, none of this is what an exhausted electorate bargained for. 

The new ABC News poll showed Biden’s approval dropped significantly this week among independent voters, or as Kevin Madden, a public affairs professional and former Mitt Romney senior adviser, calls them, “the pragmatic middle” who were invested in Biden’s “promise of a return to normalcy.” 

In response, Biden refuses to take questions on Afghanistan, an optic many believe is not what pragmatics signed up for. Nor did they sign up for trying to change the Supreme Court and wild spending. Exit poll data shows Biden won because voters were looking for a candidate with good judgment and for someone who could unite the country. 

Not only has Biden misread this message, but he is squandering this goodwill that was granted to him in an effort to achieve a kinder, more normal presidency. Instead, normalcy and empathy have been a pseudo-creation by the people around Biden and himself and not a characteristic of the president himself.