As the grim poll numbers pile up and the 2022 midterms draw nearer, elected Democrats have begun to break from the president and his agenda.
As the grim poll numbers pile up and the 2022 midterms draw nearer, elected Democrats have begun to break from the president and his agenda.
W ho is afraid of Joe Biden?
Judging by the last few months, the answer is that nobody is. Today is Thursday, and already this week has been a nightmare for the president. Yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia gave a series of interviews during which he poured cold water all over the White House’s preposterous “Build Back Better” bill — suggesting not only that it is an indulgence that should be delayed pending better economic news, but that much of what was produced in its name by the House of Representatives will have to be “scrubbed.” Last night, Manchin struck again, joining Senator Jon Tester of Montana in voting to reverse President Biden’s flagrantly unconstitutional federal vaccine mandate. And, on Tuesday, Senator Tester teamed up with Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and the two Democratic senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, to tank Biden’s choice for comptroller of the currency, Saule Omarova. “No,” it seems, is the Word of the Week for upper-chamber Democrats.
These moves mark an acceleration of Democratic resistance to President Biden’s wishes, but they do not represent the full extent of it. Last week, Senator Chris Murphy claimed that the Democrats have the votes in the Senate to pass a gun-control bill, H.R. 8, that came out of the House earlier in the year. But they don’t, because, as he made clear six months ago, Senator Manchin remains steadfastly opposed. Also killed by senators of Biden’s own party have been filibuster reform, the Equality Act, the For the People Act, the proposed expansion of the federal minimum wage, and the “codification” of Roe v. Wade into statutory law. As for nominees, Omarova is one of three Biden picks to have been culled by unhappy Democrats. In March, the president withdrew Neera Tanden from consideration for director of the OMB after Senator Manchin made it clear that he was opposed, while, in September, Biden was forced to concede that the gun-control zealot David H. Chipman would not be voted in as the new head of the ATF after Senator Angus King of Maine balked.
Democrats frustrated by the president’s unpopularity have taken to suggesting impatiently that Biden must do more to “lead.” But, really, what can he do? Go into his critics’ districts and savage them with his wit? In West Virginia, Biden’s approval rating is 19 percent, while his “Build Back Better” agenda has just 26 percent support. In Arizona, his approval rating is 35 percent. In Montana it’s 31, in New Hampshire it’s 43, in Colorado it’s 40, and in Virginia, where Terry McAuliffe was forced to disavow Biden during the recent gubernatorial election, it is 38. In Kansas and Michigan — the two states whose Democratic governors have come out against the federal vaccine mandate — it is 27 and 39 percent respectively. Increasingly, it is not a problem for a Democrat to oppose the president on any particular issue; it is a boon. What, in their heart of hearts, do embattled Democratic politicians want from Santa this Christmas? Another loony idea that they can vote down, that’s what.
And no, Biden isn’t unpopular because he has proven unable to shepherd the most ambitious — read: disfavored — parts of his agenda through Congress. As NPR reports today, only 41 percent of Americans support the president’s “Build Back Better” agenda, not least because they do not believe it addresses “their top economic concern — inflation” and because they are not “convinced that it would help people like them.” Meanwhile, NPR confirms, the public is “down on the job President Biden is doing,” has “soured on the direction of the country,” and isn’t especially pleased about what the Democrats have already done, with a majority of Americans believing that “the direct payments or expanded child tax credits doled out earlier this year” did not “help them much.” Even the supposedly world-beating “bipartisan infrastructure bill” engenders muted admiration, with just 56 percent of Americans saying they support it, and less than one-third saying that it will materially improve their lives.
Successful presidents are able to use their charisma, their eloquence, their popularity, or a combination of all three to win over the people they need to help along their plans. Having none of these virtues, President Biden brings with him only rain. As next year’s midterms draw near, expect the Democrats to flee further, and faster, from the White House than they already are, in the hope that somewhere between themselves and Armageddon there lies a dry spot.