Lord Biden

Vice President Joe Biden shut down air travel in Washington DC smack dab in the middle of the Friday evening rush. Or at least that was United Airlines’ excuse for our sitting at the gate for nearly an hour, cabin door shut (no personal electronics for you!). After having dutifully emptied, stripped, and bared for TSA, sorted and queued in the correct sub-flock among the dozen boarding classes, hoisted and stuffed and stowed our gear, and hurriedly seated ourselves, hoping for an on-time departure, the delay was deeply frustrating and disruptive.

The absurdity of this is at least twofold: (1), we commercial air travelers pose no realistic threat to Air Force 1 or 2 or Air Force anything. Why not just give an extra wide safety margin to the VP and continue normal operations? Any threat scenario should be subjected to a credibility test, e.g., United flight 631 threatens Air Force 2… somehow… ok, folks, ah, this is high concept, ya gotta work with me here…. (2) how does the Vice President – or even the POTUS – rate this sort of disruptive power? When dozens of flights carrying thousands of citizens are swept up in absurd security theater, the deference is excessive and smacks of an imperial presidency. New unis for the White House guards (Nixon) or shredding the Constitution (bush jr), fine, but lemme fly! Even conceding that “security” is theater, and that it is important to make people feel secure, we need to re-balance toward practicality (less drama, more box office please).

I missed my connecting flight but my biggest disappointment is Joe; I thought he was a railroad guy.