Ballooning through fear and anger, blaming Biden or Trump

There is no other way to put it: the country is in a seemingly bottomless bad mood.

Dissatisfied with his leading candidates for president, arguing over when a balloon should have been knocked down, and deeply pessimistic about the direction of America, anger, fear, and frustration abound.

And yet, while there are clearly economic concerns, led by inflation, this is a nation that has just recorded an unemployment rate of 3.4%, the lowest since the United States has landed men on the moon in 1969.

Moreover, at least half of voters in each party do not want the most likely rematch in 2024.

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A Washington Post/ABC poll indicates that 58% of Democrats and Democratic Learners would prefer someone other than Joe Biden as their candidate.

And among Republicans and Republican leaders, 49% say they want someone other than Donald Trump as their nominee.

It doesn’t stop there. Some 56% of those polled said they would be “angry” or “dissatisfied” if Trump regains the White House, and 62% say they will feel the same if Biden is re-elected.

This reminds me of a number from the latest Fox News poll: 55% of Democrats say they are dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

Here you have Biden, who has spent billions of dollars on spending on everything from climate change to infrastructure, who has carried out much of Bernie’s leftist agenda, and a majority in his own party is not All right ?

This may of course reflect concerns about Biden’s age or failure to achieve liberal goals such as police reform. But this is not a good harbinger for the president, while at the same time the former president faces multiple challengers.

The melodrama of China’s spy flights is a classic illustration of how everyone in the media is suddenly expert at everything, as well as how ferociously the other side is demonized.

Conservatives immediately demanded that Biden shoot down the balloon, even though Pentagon officials explained that it posed no risk but could injure people if shot over land. That’s why the president immediately told reporters he had ordered the downing of the craft last Wednesday, but deferred to military experts who said it would be safer to wait until he did. or above the water. The right then instantly switched to the argument that Biden had waited too long, allowing the balloon to gather intelligence as it flew west to east.

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President Biden talks about inflation and supply chain issues in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Now the Pentagon is countering that it blocked the balloon from collecting further intelligence when we needed to study it. In fact, there have been 20 to 30 spy balloons in Beijing in recent years, including three detected during the Trump administration. Trump himself said this “FALSE DISINFORMATION!”, and Biden’s team offered to provide details.

But I would blame the administration – and this is reminiscent of the mess of classified documents – for its secrecy. We wouldn’t have heard of the balloon if it hadn’t become visible 60,000 feet above Montana, prompting local media coverage.

Still, the sight of half the country slamming the other half, and vice versa — just take to Twitter — for endangering national security with a wayward ball isn’t exactly uplifting.

What if the situation were reversed and this had happened under President Trump, does anyone seriously doubt that many would simply switch sides?

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump applauds as the crowd cheers during a rally in Washington Township, Michigan, U.S. April 2, 2022. (REUTERS/Emily Elconin)

The country has a lot of problems, from the border to a possible recession. But the biggest problem might be the fierce polarization that has left any semblance of unity a distant memory.

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And unless a younger candidate breaks through, entire swaths of the country will be angry for the next four years, starting in 2025, whether Biden or Trump wins.

And that is, to say the least, rather depressing.