Democrat political operatives in Pennsylvania recently met to discuss why President Joe Biden’s favorable poll numbers have failed to rebound after suffering a steep decline in recent weeks. This, in spite of a favorable press that protects the president from much of the criticism he deserves and makes sure the news cycle moves on from any bad news that might damage him. For example, had the devastating drone strike that killed innocent civilians, including children, happened under a Republican president, we would still be hearing about it (and we should still be hearing about it). As it is, the press has moved on.

What these Pennsylvania Democrats decided, it seems, is that it all comes down to Biden’s failure to successfully address the COVID pandemic. People are still getting sick. People are still dying. In spite of three effective and safe vaccines, millions are not getting vaccinated. There is considerable resistance to vaccine and mask mandates. A lot of the financial assistance made available for those struggling during the pandemic is running out or has run out.

Here’s my take. There are a lot of reasons to be deeply disappointed, though not surprised, by Biden’s miserable record so far. My assessment of Biden is that he represents establishment politics, is corrupt to the core, especially in that he’s never afraid to profit from his position of influence, is an unashamed hypocrite, is easily manipulated by whichever way the political wind is moving, is a habitual liar, presides over the Executive branch like a dictator with his Executive Orders, and supports policies that are bad for the country. He’s basically a big government Democrat that likes to talk about helping people but does little to help people. That’s pretty much the entire Democrat party. The best example that comes to mind is the disaster of our inner cities that have been ruled by the Dems for half a century, each one promising the store, and never delivering. So many of our inner cities remain hell holes, and the Dems are only too happy to keep it that way so long as they can exploit the misery of the inner cities to continue making promises that will get them elected. On top of his bad policies and poor decisions, there remains the question of Biden’s competence and capacity to preside over the government. The notion that Biden is being managed by his team, and the notion that Biden needs to be managed by his team, is reinforced every time he goes rogue and speaks outside the lines of his script, each time he walks away from the podium without taking questions, each time he takes questions only from those reporters chosen before hand by his managers, and each time he announces that he’s not supposed to talk or take questions, otherwise he’s gonna get in trouble!

But, I don’t think Biden is responsible for the fact that COVID is still here, or for the recent surge in cases. COVID is a virus. No president can control a virus. As far as I’m concerned, Trump did and Biden is doing about as much as government can to control the virus, which is not much at all, except for the development of the vaccine. Trump did the nation a solid when he initiated Operation Warp Speed that developed a vaccine in record time. The vaccine is the key to getting through COVID. The problem is, millions are refusing to get vaccinated. The media likes to push the narrative that the anti-vaxxers are mostly Trump supporters or other types of conservatives. But, the ethnic group that has the lowest rate of vaccination is African-Americans, and the group by education level with the lowest vax rate is PhD’s. Both of these groups traditionally vote Democrat. Both Trump and Biden have encouraged people to get vaccinated. I’m not sure what more Biden can do to control the virus. In fact, I’m sure there’s little else he can do other than encourage people to get vaccinated.

Having said all that, I’m not surprised that many people blame Biden for the continued COVID pandemic and that the country, or many parts of it, haven’t been able to get back to “normal.” Why? A couple of reasons come to mind:

First, during the 2020 presidential campaign, the Democrats were not shy about blaming Trump for the COVID pandemic. They did everything short of accusing him of creating the virus himself. Many held him personally responsible for every one of the 500,000 deaths the nation suffered in 2020, insisting that he didn’t take the virus seriously and refused to enact measures to effectively limit the spread of the virus. Well, given that the Dems adopted a strategy of blaming Trump for the virus in order to win the White House, they can hardly complain that people blame Biden for the virus now that he’s in the White House.

Second, Democrat and even some Republican governors instituted mask mandates and restrictions on gatherings, even telling people they couldn’t go to church. Politicians and activists politicized the virus for political gain, exploiting the virus to increase government control over the economy and people’s personal lives to an extent never before experienced in our nation’s history. This set people’s minds on the idea that government had a significant role in controlling the virus. That was a foolish idea, and it remains a foolish idea. But, politicians insisted that shutting down the economy and arresting people for playing ball with their children in a park while not wearing a mask and standing hundreds of feet away from anyone else would help to limit the spread of the virus (even as thousands were marching elbow-to-elbow in the streets and rioting in a number of cities). The government essentially asked the American people to believe them when they claimed that their actions could manage the virus – an invisible creature that spreads like wildfire. And the American people, well many of them, believed the government. Democrats, especially, have a long history of believing that the government can do almost anything and that more government is the answer to almost any problem. So, it’s no surprise that people still believe that the government can control the virus and blame the guy in the White House when it becomes obvious that the government can’t control the virus.

So, basically, Biden is reaping the ill-tasting fruit of the Democrat’s campaign strategy and pandemic strategy from 2020. They, along with some Republicans, and with the media serving as loyal wing man, created the narrative that the government could adopt measures that would control and then defeat the virus. Other than the remarkable accomplishment of developing a vaccine so rapidly, that narrative was wrong and foolish. As usual, what goes around come around, so they have only themselves to blame.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.