This morning, as I was concluding my devotional time by praying for situations and people, I thought about praying for the President, which I know I should do every day, but, frankly, don’t. No real reason – I guess I get into a groove of praying for family, friends, my church and pastor, etc., etc. But this morning, as I was conversing with the Lord, it occurred to me that our President needs our prayers.
I think it occurred to me when I remembered that his approval rating is heading for the basement. Then I thought about the approval rating for his predecessor, which also had hit historic lows during his term. Then I began to wonder if the approval ratings were more of an indication of the expectations of the American people than they were of the actual performance of either man.
Maybe we Americans are, quite simply, impossible to please. Maybe it doesn’t matter how well or how poorly our Commander-in-Chief performs, we just want to find fault because we’re a nation of spoiled bratty kids.
Biden recently accomplished a hard-won goal of passing a something-trillion-dollar infrastructure package. In order to do that, he had to have support from a minimum number of legislators from both parties, so the fact that it passed shows that a majority (albeit the slightest of majorities) must believe in the need for this bill to move forward. I know that there are people who have opposed the proposal for whatever reasons, but the bottom line is that the improvements that will be made across the nation have been needed for years. I, for one, will be happy to see some of the roadways I’ve traveled improved (it’s become a kind of game to try to avoid potholes on some of the interstates I traveled over the summer, a game I’d rather not have to play). Have you taken a good look at some of the bridges around your area? If they’re like the ones here, they need more than a coat of paint. Just a couple of years ago, a major overpass on I-495 from Delaware to Pennsylvania started sinking and pulling apart. Fortunately, the problem was caught and repaired before the structure toppled completely, but this is just one example of the need for infrastructure improvement.
The other components of the bill are, in my humble opinion, things we need in order to keep our nation moving forward: cleaning up our water and improving wastewater treatment processes, improving electric grid reliability, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, granting the Army Corps of Engineers monies to mitigate floods, supporting the planting of more than 1 billion trees, expanding broadband to the more remote areas of the country, and so much more (a detailed, but certainly not exhaustive, list of what the bill includes can be found here: https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-the-infrastructure-bill-happened-and-what-it-will-do/).
My point is that we as a nation seem to relish criticism. Even when we’re given something that will dramatically improve our lives, we’re still compelled to keep our approval low. If we keep this up, we’ll get exactly what any spoiled bratty kid deserves.