Did you ever wonder what it would be like to live under communism?  Well, now you know.

The last two years have seen a parade of dumb and dumber policies, the kind you expect in totalitarian dictatorships.  The distinguishing traits are as follows: rulers show contempt for their serfs; policy wonks concoct endless stream of counterproductive ideas; and casual cruelty hurts everyone, day after day.  Here are a dozen examples.

Think back to Biden's decision to shut down the pipeline bringing petroleum from Canada.  Could anything be more irrational than shutting down a functioning pipeline, thus causing higher prices for everyone (and  giving Putin the money he needed to invade a neighbor)?  Then we had the president wandering around foreign countries begging for their petroleum.  Millions of Americans knew for the first time what a totalitarian society feels like.  The top guy is nuts, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Doing the same period, Dr. Fauci gave us a fabulously disruptive epidemic.  Fauci was almost bragging that one million would die even as other experts declared that virtually no one had to die.  Fauci seemed to take pleasure in weird regulations and imposition.  A lot of his measures were in fact the wrong ones.  Fauci was able to make the country’s medical system do as told.  Therapeutics that might help, and had been widely available at your local pharmacy for decades, were suddenly illegal.

Biden declared that anybody could come into the country — people who might be criminals, people who might be diseased, people with no English and no skills.  The broken border was a perfect example of malevolent caprice.  This phenomenon was especially galling when illegal aliens were given privileges and benefits not available to citizens.

Biden bizarrely abandoned Bagram airbase.  Weapons worth billions of dollars went into enemy hands.  Perhaps more painful to consider, Biden left Americans and our supporters at the mercy of the Taliban.  This is among the most dishonorable stunts in American history.  I thought at the time, "Nobody will ever vote again for Biden, certainly not military people."

Pushing big-budget social experiments with absurd names that promise to limit inflation even as everyone acknowledges that spending ever more money we don't have will lead to more inflation — that's Biden’s world.

Biden shamelessly dipped into the petroleum reserves to keep the price low so he wouldn't feel any discomfort at the polls.  This is the reserve we keep for emergencies such as wars.  For Biden, the only emergency that matters is diminished approval. 

The summer of 2020 saw riots in most major cities, with weeks of arson, rioting, looting, and feeble-minded responses by district attorneys apparently on the payroll of an avowed America-hater.  Nobody was convicted.  The goal seems to be showing Americans that we no longer have any self-respect or safety.  Everyone knew that another few senators on the wrong side, and the country would be chaotic and out of control forever.  Okay, we know why Soros would want that, but why would Biden want that?

Defunding police is the kind of idea that makes most humans react with you're kidding, right?  But Biden and his gang pushed the heck out of this thing until many American cities were dangerous to an unprecedented degree.  Crime became a major issue for the upcoming election.  Are there nuts somewhere who knowingly vote for more dangerous streets?

Or if we dig a little deeper, will we find there is a pathological compulsion to make people suffer?  Many people wondered throughout the COVID months why there are so many draconian rules.  Making healthy people stay in their basements is actually the wrong way to build up immune systems.

All of these extreme policies let ordinary Americans experience communist dictatorship.  You are constantly pushed around, stepped on, ignored, and cheated.

Hanging over all such discussions is 1984, the novel by George Orwell, where he talks about stomping on a human face.  Orwell explains why party leaders want everyone to suffer.  How else will they know that they have you in total control if you're not squirming in pain?

The world has always had leaders likely to do something insane.  But that was not the main point of the action.  With Biden-Obama-Klain, sadism seemed to be the main fascination.  Make the suckers suffer.  Take away their dignity.

Can anyone believe that so many stupid decisions were good decisions, or is it rather that the bosses wanted to see what Americans would put up with?  Did Biden and his people ever embrace any policy that was sane?  No, they seem most concerned with letting ordinary Americans twist in the wind, so that choosing between eating and heating is now a real question for many families.

It's hard to escape the feeling that Biden and his team find weird pleasure from making people helpless and uncomfortable.  Finally, is communism nothing but carte blanche for tormenting others while you feel superior?

We can’t help noticing that the world’s foremost communist governments seem to be disintegrating.  That would be China, which many analysts say is falling into economic collapse.  That would be Russia, which Putin seems determined to take back 25 years.  And that would be Biden’s quasi-communist regime.  All three governments show signs of decline, so perhaps we can conclude that people don't like being pushed around.  Another common denominator is corruption.  Joe and Hunter Biden traipse around the planet selling influence, and virtually everyone knows this.  Why aren’t the Bidens in jail?

Truth is, I started writing this article confident that the Democrats would be repudiated by a red wave.  My confidence was not based on arcane analysis.  The world saw President Biden do lots of stupid things.  Who could support him or his party?  Nobody, I thought.

Not so fast, we found out on election day.  Maybe Democrats and their media have become so skillful at sabotaging opposition that the public can no longer fight back.  Or have Democrats become masters of election fraud?  In that regard, 2020 was an ominous year.  A judge, or was it a tech billionaire, ordered Americans not to discuss what may or may not have happened in the presidential election.  That restriction is so perfectly Stalinist.  So much for the First Amendment.

So what's worse?  Biden cuts every corner and breaks every rule?  Or the American public does not seem to care?

Bruce Deitrick Price's new novel is Frankie.  Summary: Frankie engages in smart conversation with humans.  No other skills.  Harmless.  Chaos ensues.  For more info, visit http://Frankie.zone.

Image via Max Pixel.