Democrats Are Grappling With Joe Biden’s Plummeting Approval Rating

“Expectations got out of control. Biden is at his best when he talks about just making things a little better for regular people,”

Joe Biden’s approval ratings are low, a trend that could be disastrous for his party in November’s congressional midterm elections.

Polls have consistently shown that Biden’s approval rating is below 50%, with steep drops among both liberal-learning young people and Hispanics. Meanwhile, the FiveThirtyEight polling average has Biden at 42%, indicating bipartisan dissatisfaction with his administration.

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Joe Biden’s first year in office was marked by some historic victories, but the majority of his legislative agenda has been completely stalled. His poll numbers plummeted following the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

And his party’s dysfunction in Congress hasn’t helped. Nonetheless, Democratic lawmakers believe the resurgent coronavirus pandemic and its economic consequences are to blame.

Since the summer, when the delta variant first emerged, Americans have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Biden’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

The more contagious but milder omicron variant, which emerged over the holidays, exacerbated labor shortages and highlighted flaws in COVID testing infrastructure, hasn’t helped Biden’s numbers.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, “The effect of the pandemic is still psychologically very burdensome on everybody. I think the American public might be feeling differently in eight months or so.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said, “I think a major factor is inflation.” Adding that he thinks Biden is “blamed for stuff that’s beyond his control. People go buy gas and milk and they’re angry. We need to stop the rise in prices. He’s taking some steps in that direction.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), about the only Democrat most responsible for Biden’s inability to get his agenda passed, had his own theory, “Maybe enough people aren’t listening to him. He makes a lot of sense and gives a good talk.”

With Build Back Better stalled, Biden’s low approval ratings have become an “I told you so” moment for progressives, who have been holding up a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill for months, demanding that Build Back Better, their social spending and tax proposal, be included.

“If you’re a moderate in the Democratic Party, 2021 played out exactly like you wanted when only infrastructure passed Congress after the Rescue Plan. So how do you answer for low approval ratings for the president and dimming prospects for the party in November?” Sen. Bernie Sanders’ communication director Mike Casca tweeted this week.

After Democrats lost the Virginia gubernatorial election in November, moderate Democrats prevailed, claiming that the political cost of failing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill was simply too high. Congress passed the bill just days after the Virginia loss, with no meaningful progress on Build Back Better.

According to Ian Russell, a pollster and former director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the timing may have ruined Biden’s bipartisan moment of glory and turned it into more of a consolation prize.

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Russell said, “We stepped on our own press with infrastructure. It was a panicked response.”

Both Democrats and Republicans agreed that Build Back Better would be “transformational,” with Democrats comparing Biden to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Expectations got out of control. Biden is at his best when he talks about just making things a little better for regular people,” Russell said.

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