Clarice Feldman – It has been unseasonably cold in Washington D.C. this spring. The blossoms on the cherry tree on my front lawn had barely bloomed when a cold snap and heavy wind-driven rain scattered the petals all over my front lawn. I stepped out front to pick up a box of herbs left there to be planted when a neighbor passed by.

I don’t know him very well, but his virtue signaling was a rather good clue as to where his sympathies lay. His lawn was peppered with signs: ”Biden-Harris,” “Hate has no Home Here,” “Build Bridges not Walls,” “Refugees Welcome Here,” “Climate Action Now,” “Gun Control Now,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Defund the Police.” By their lawn signs you shall know them, I thought. Still, I was polite — waved and said, ”Hi.”

He apparently had something on his chest he just had to get rid of and approached me.

“It’s Trump’s doing!” he shouted.

Nonplussed, I simply raised my eyebrows and let him continue.

“He only pretended to run against Biden. He wanted him to win!”

“Really?” I asked.

“It’s perfectly obvious. Getting Biden and Harris elected was his diabolical way of destroying the Democratic party for decades! They and the Democratic party’s policies are so stupid, the people can’t stand them. Can’t wait to get rid of them.”

I didn’t wish to disturb this already vexed man more, so, saying nothing, I tilted my head suggesting I wanted to hear more behind his tirade.

“I can’t think of a thing Biden’s done which doesn’t make life worse for everyone. He’s losing Black and Hispanic voters and even suburban White women with this craziness. He’s paving the way for Iran to get nuclear weapons and upset the peace in the Middle East, to detriment of our allies. He’s stirring up Putin in a way that may lead to World War III. He’s thrown out so much money that inflation is soaring, and average people are finding it hard to put food on the tables and a roof over their heads.

“And don’t get me started on energy.” (I looked over at his yard — his “Climate Action Sign” was missing).

“He did everything to raise the cost of coal, gas, and oil and that has added to household costs for everything and created a supply chain bottleneck we can’t seem to work our way out of. We’re told the dog food we need will be out of stock for at least a month and it’ll be six months until we can replace our refrigerator.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

“Crime,” he muttered. “It’s out of control. This defund the police stuff is ridiculous. Five cars were broken into on this block in the last two weeks. There was a multiple shooting in the motel where the government has been housing the homeless three blocks away the week before. I’ve never seen anything like that in this neighborhood before!” (I looked again over his shoulder. The “Gun Control Now” sign had also vanished from his lawn.)

“And then there are the absolutely moronic things he and Harris say. This week he said that if we buy electric vehicles, we’ll save about $80 a month on gas. But those cars on average cost $56,000, a great deal more than conventional cars, and electricity — largely produced by fossil fuels — costs more because he’s made it more expensive by hamstringing the production of gas, coal, and oil. So even if his calculation were true, it would take decades for someone to afford to purchase an electric vehicle to achieve such savings.

“Don’t get me started on Harris, she’s even dumber. I can’t even point to the dumbest thing she’s said — there’s so much competition — but what does she even mean with gibberish like this: ‘We have the ability to see what can be unburdened by what has been and then to make the possible actually happen’? Or this: ‘It is time for us to do what we have been doing and that time is every day’?

“And then this genius comes out with a $5.8 trillion budget plan which, no kidding, he said was a ‘clear message that we value fiscal responsibility.’ I mean, we’re already $30 trillion dollars in debt and he wants to spend stuff like this — $11 billion for ‘international climate finance,’ and $18 billion for a ‘Civilian Climate Corps.’ He’s stripping our wallets and tossing the funds away.”

I also noticed that my neighbor’s pro-immigrant signs had been removed. I hesitated to mention his lawn redecoration program, but I asked if he’d changed his mind about the Democrats’ no-borders policy.

He slapped a palm to his head, “The border states are overwhelmed and the Democratic congressional members from those states were in trouble enough when this week the CDC announced it was ending Title 42, Trump’s plan, which allowed the immigration officials to return border crossers and illegal aliens to their home countries. They’re estimating a least half a million border crossers will show up at the southern border EVERY MONTH!” He was shouting now. “EVERY MONTH,” that’s like the size of Atlanta, Georgia. or Fresno, California, every month!”

He was on a roll. “My daughter is a competitive swimmer, what do you imagine are my thoughts about transgenders competing against her? I was happy to see several states (Utah, Texas, Florida, South Dakota) are banning transgender competitors in women’s sports. I mean, what was Title IX about anyway, except giving women a chance to fairly compete? And what did Biden just do?

I’ll tell you,” he said, without giving me a chance to respond. “He’s about to issue a new Title IX rule banning discrimination ’on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics, sexual orientation, and gender identity, whatever the heck this gibberish means — to me it means boys can put on girls’ sports costumes and compete against them if they feel like it.”

“This at the same time his Supreme Court nominee, touted as the first Black woman to be nominated to the Court, says she’s not a biologist and can’t define what a woman is.”

‘I see your point,” I said, “though I wouldn’t point the finger at Trump, but on those who voted for Biden. There was every indication this was how things were going to turn out.” As I said that, I noticed his wife was pulling the last sign out of their lawn.