Our Nation is in a TAILSPIN. The aircraft depicted in the short video clip above is in an inverted spin, but do not despair, this aircraft is doing a form of aerobatics, probably at an airshow, and the spin was intentionally entered to give the crowd some “oooohs” and “aaaahs”. We know this since the aircraft is trailing smoke for sky-writing purposes. The skilled pilot will safely exit the spin and go on to other feats of daring, like low inverted flight over the runway, or Cuban Eights. We show this clip to point out similarities between an aircraft TAILSPIN and a TAILSPIN in government. “Unlikely” you say? Let us dissuade you of that belief.
Most aircraft enter a TAILSPIN as a result of pilot action or inattention. If one pulls the throttles to idle on most aircraft, while attempting to remain at altitude with wings level, with no other pilot input, meaning no rudder or aileron input, the aircraft’s nose will simply drop forward and downward resulting from the loss of wing lift. This is called a stall. We won’t get into the aerodynamics of how that occurs as that would be outside the scope of this blog. What causes a stall to become a TAILSPIN is the inadvertent, or in the case of the aerobatic pilot above, an intentional abrupt input of full rudder deflection, and can be exacerbated by the application of aileron inputs as well. So, how does this relate to a governmental TAILSPIN?
Let’s first talk about inattention. When government leaders and executives become more concerned with trivial matters, and take “their eye off the ball”, major incidences and occurrences can leap forward to devour the best intentions or chosen agendas. When a stall in governmental progress occurs in moving the chosen agenda forward, the government may make irrational and overly aggressive actions to correct the stalling agenda, and a governmental TAILSPIN can occur. The week before last was particularly infested with results from governmental inattention and inappropriate, knee-jerk if you will, and sometimes even fraudulent, actions. We will review just a few. We can start by looking at the most recent polling data. Rasmussen shows declining approval ratings of the White House occupant: strongly approve – 18%, strongly disapprove – 49% (Rasmussen Reports, January 17, 2022). The Supreme Court of the United States invalidated the current occupant of the White House’s injection mandate through OSHA for larger business employing at least 100 people. It was an over-reach of Executive Power in an attempt to usurp the Legislative Branch power of our Republic. Then there was the White House occupant’s speech in Georgia accusing at least half of the voters in our Nation of being associated with racism dating back to the era of Jim Crow, George Wallace, Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis. His promise to unite all Americans seems to be shrouded in an attempt to peel off the scab of the racism wound in our Nation. We will not forget that the current occupant of the White House had close friendships with the former KKK grand wizard Senator Robert Byrd and the segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, and he eulogized both upon their passing. Years ago, he also presided over the Senate’s confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the justice himself saying “It’s a High-Tech Lynching for Uppity Blacks.” It was the current occupant of the White House that help to create the 1994 Crime Bill that led to mass incarcerations of Black Americans. In his bid for the White House office, he boldly said “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” In a previous campaign, he also referred to Romney’s run for the Presidency saying, “They’re going to put you all back in chains.” Sounds less like a uniter and more like a divider. Let us also consider the financial news of the week before last. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was pegged at 7%, the highest in 40 years. The Product Price Index (PPI) jumped to 10% (Series Id: WPUFD4, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 17, 2022). We can also talk about the supply chain issues resulting in many shelves becoming barer throughout the Nation. Since China has now shut down many of their major ports due to another virus breakout or new variant strain, we should expect these issues to continue well into this next year. Fortunately for Americans, the attempt to make the Senate less part of a Republic by doing away with the Filibuster, the need for 60 Senators to agree to move any proposed agenda forward, hit a major roadblock within the Democratic party, and the attempt to pass this legislation failed. For now, it would appear that there remains the need within our Republic to come to a larger consensus for laws to be passed, rather than for a majority of “one vote” to dictate policy to an entire Nation. Isn’t it hypocritical for Democrats to clammer for the destruction of the Filibuster, when in 2020 they used it 327 times to the Republicans using it only once (Washingtonexaminer.com, May 27, 2021)? Let us not forget that we are still in a COVID porn panic, since there has been an explosion of testing. The “at home tests” are often inaccurate, and the PCR tests can detect COVID weeks after it has been killed within the body, long after a person is free of the virus. Still, more deaths have now occurred under the current administration than the previous one, and the previous one did not have vaccines, wide-spread testing, or approved therapeutics and the use of monoclonal antibody therapies. Who was it that said, “I’m going to shut down the virus!” Oh, yes, that was the current occupant of the White House. We need to also mention the failure of productive talks with the Russians over their mass military buildup on the eastern Ukraine border. Did anyone catch note of North Korea launching more missiles? They did. Well, we could go on, but we think these things happening within the span of just one week are enough to say our Nation has entered a TAILSPIN under the control of an inattentive administration, and one that has taken inappropriate actions putting us into this potential death spiral.
We now need to address how a recovery from a TAILSPIN is to take place. Many USAF pilots learned how to first fly jets in Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). Our reference is the initial training used up until the mid 1970s, primarily in the Cessna T-37, a side-by-side seat configured twin jet trainer, affectionately referred to as the “Tweet” for its high pitch engine whistle. One of the flying proficiency tasks was to demonstrate the ability to put the jet into a spin, and then most importantly get out of the spin. Six basic steps were memorized. The first three were to get into the spin, throttles idle, control stick back, then application of full rudder, one direction or the other. Those were the easy steps. Once into the spin, the other steps were most important. First, step on the rudder opposite the direction of the spin. The real hard part was to wait one full revolution before proceeding to the next step, pushing the control stick full forward. Waiting was the hard part. To not wait would be ineffective leading to panic and the potential for further spin complications. Once the one revolution was accomplished, the control stick was pushed forward. Once the aircraft gained enough speed, the final step was a simple recovery from the dive, pulling back gradually on the flight control stick as speed increased, then the gradual application of power to attain and maintain the desired altitude and speed at the conclusion of the maneuver. Several thousands of feet of altitude could be lost in this maneuver, but that’s what it takes to save the jet and occupants. All of this seems so simple but imagine yourself being in a jet for the first time, strapped into a parachute, in an ejection seat, wearing flight gloves and a helmet, with an oxygen mask on. Imagine how hot it was in the clear bubble cockpit with little airflow, being in the turbulent summer heat of south Texas or central Arizona. Now, consider the stress of all of that, plus the desire to up-chuck, and trying to remember all those steps in the right order and at the right time. Similarly, it is not hard to understand the complexity of problems facing this current government, with so many issues pressing all at once, many unexpected and in this case most self-inflicted through improper actions taken. Is it so hard to believe that a T-37 TAILSPIN and recovery has similarity to a potential TAILSPIN and recovery of our Nation’s government?
First, knowledge of what got us into our national TAILSPIN is most important to being able to achieve a successful exit. Being properly prepared by knowing historical and financial facts is only the beginning. We will have to be prepared to apply known processes and procedures, and to apply them at the proper time, not guessing at things we think might help. This is not a time for experimentation, but the time for the application of knowns, those processes and procedures that have proven effective. We must understand that a recovery will have to be done under some very extreme conditions, conditions unexpected and undesired, and often from forces beyond our ability to dictate and control. Certain actions may even at first seem to be counterproductive. Once initial actions are taken, it will take time and patience to see the spinning stop. To jump to other actions prematurely will only exacerbate the TAILSPIN. Once the spinning stops, we must be careful to not yank back on the levers of power as a renewed national governmental stall and spin could be entered. Slow, gradual, methodical processes and procedures need to be applied and maintained to bring our Nation out of the TAILSPIN, bringing it back under full control, moving again in a productive way. The proper actions that need to be taken have been demonstrated before by those who have been down this road, those who can be considered our “flight instructors”. We need to listen to them, not to the “want-to-be” heroes, or those who think only they have a better way. We need to emulate the method for a successful recovery. The ground, our potential point of destruction, is rapidly approaching. We must all take some responsibility in helping to bring our Nation out of this TAILSPIN. By using our voices, our letters and blogs, and our feet in peaceful actions, we will be part of our Nation’s recovery. If you treasure the FREEDOM and LIBERTY given to us by God, declared to us by our Constitution and Bill of Rights, then you cannot and must not sit idly by. You are a passenger in our Nation in this TAILSPIN. If you do nothing to help, and if the spin is not stopped, all will be lost for you and for all those who will follow you in life.