When people think of the 1970s, bell-bottom jeans, The Brady Bunch, and Led Zeppelin come to mind. But they also remember the debilitating inflation, skyrocketing crime, and weakness on the world stage…
When people think of the 1970s, bell-bottom jeans, The Brady Bunch, and Led Zeppelin come to mind. But they also remember the debilitating inflation, skyrocketing crime, and weakness on the world stage.
Sound familiar? Thanks to President Joe Biden, we’re going back to the bad old days of Jimmy Carter.
Under Carter, the country saw double-digit inflation. Meat prices surged, with beef up 39% in one year. Energy prices were so high that Carter urged the public to put on a sweater and turn down their thermostats. The cost of gas doubled between Carter’s first year in office and 1981.
Today, a similar situation is unfolding. Biden’s reckless spending is making everything more expensive. New data show that consumer prices spiked by nearly 8% over the past year, the fastest rate in 40 years. Gas and electricity are respectively up 38% and 9% over last year. Staples such as milk and eggs are up 11%. And used cars will cost you 41% more — if you can even find one. These prices are hitting the public in the pocketbook. Sixty-four percent of people say they are now living paycheck to paycheck. And voters rank rising prices as one of their biggest concerns.
The Biden administration’s response to surging energy prices? Buy an electric car.
Meanwhile, a crime wave to rival the 1970s is sweeping the nation. Fourteen major Democratic-run cities set all-time homicide records last year. Police officers have seen a 115% surge in ambush-style attacks since 2020. And on top of the surge in violent crimes, there’s been an uptick in carjackings and organized “smash-and-grab” robberies in stores.
Democrats cheered Biden when he claimed to denounce the defund-the-police agenda in his State of the Union Address. But Democrats’ undeniable support for the movement is what created the crime surge in the first place, and Biden refuses to condemn soft-on-crime Democratic district attorneys. Much like the Carter years, our neighborhoods are less safe thanks to Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies.
Then there’s Biden’s weakness on the world stage — something all too familiar for those who remember the ‘70s. Carter projected weakness, and America suffered for it. Iran held our citizens hostage, only to release them minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, unleashing destruction and chaos. Now, it’s Biden’s America-last agenda that has emboldened our enemies. His disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan embarrassed us in front of the world, abandoning Americans behind enemy lines and leaving billions of dollars in military equipment to the Taliban.
His refusal to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its lies about COVID-19 has shown that Biden isn’t serious about keeping our enemies in check. And Biden’s decision to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline handed Russia important leverage, giving them the green light to invade Ukraine. It’s no coincidence that Iran released the hostages when Carter left office, and it’s no coincidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin waited until Biden was president to invade Ukraine.
It didn’t have to be this way. Under Republican leadership and President Donald Trump, America enjoyed a roaring economy. Before the pandemic, our country gained 7 million new jobs, more than three times what experts predicted. Incomes for middle-class families increased nearly $6,000 — more than five times what they gained under President Barack Obama. And the unemployment rate reached its lowest in 50 years.
Violent crime and murder plummeted, especially thanks to Trump’s Operation Legend, which targeted crime in cities. And far from projecting weakness, Trump’s foreign policy led to historic peace in the Middle East, Mexico sending its own troops to guard the U.S.-Mexico border, and the end of the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.
Like his 1970s predecessor, Biden has shown us the real-world consequences of weak leadership. But if history repeats itself, the backlash is coming. It was Carter’s disastrous presidency that led to Reagan’s landslide victory and the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. And it’s Biden’s failure at home and abroad that will cost Democrats at the ballot box this November and beyond.