Joe Biden’s approval in office as measured by opinion polls has been on a more or less steady downward trajectory since about March of 2021. I was told no math would be involved this morning, but that’s roughly since his second month in office. The Pew Research Center posted a good collection of polling data as of January 25 here. As Pew puts it, “his approval rating continues to decline among many demographic and political groups.” What happened? A few unscientific conjectures and observations in no particular order and no claim to originality:
• Biden campaigned nineteenth-century style, hiding out in the basement in Wilmington. But for the debates, he was shielded from view. The reasons for this have become increasingly obvious. He is not up to the job.
• Vice president Harris is not up to the job either, and she does not have the excuse of age. She is an idiot. Biden’s selection of her discredits him.
• Among the Democratic field, Biden appeared to be the moderate choice. In office, he has proved himself a captive of the lunatic left. Whatever he really “thinks,” he has pursued the agenda of the lunatic left. As the shock of recognition has set in, Biden’s approval has receded. Many voters feel they were sold a bill of goods.
• I want to pause over what I call the shock of recognition. Seeing him in office, many voters recognize that he is a captive of the lunatic left whether or not he himself is a true believer. He is a true believer only in himself. But they recognize that the most policies he has pursued are those of the lunatic left.
• I first heard “abolish ICE” advocated as a policy position in June 2018 at the special Fifth District endorsing convention. It was one of Ilhan Omar’s selling points in her remarks at the convention. Biden has institutionalized the functional equivalent of the Omar policy since his first day in office. He has erased our southern border. This policy is popular nowhere but the lunatic left. Thus the suppression of the news to the maximum extent possible.
• The Afghanistan fiasco served as the expressive form for the miasma of the Biden administration.
• The administration’s suppression of energy development in the United States is obviously insane. It also represents the administration’s captivity by the lunatic left, though Biden himself may actually “believe” in the theology of climate change.
• The administration is full of talking points presented by the psychedelic Jen Psaki, but you can’t talk away the inflation that is evident to every sentient citizen. It hits you in the face every time you fill up your car. Combine it with the administration’s suppression of energy development in the United States and you are reminded that the lunatic left is running the show.
• The economy continues to recover from the 2020 lockdowns and Biden predictably claims credit for it. Is there anyone in his right mind who thinks that Biden himself has promoted any policy that fosters economic recovery?
• Biden’s dearly desired multitrillion dollar Bummer Beyond Belief is similarly lunatic in the context of inflation. I think most of us understand that.
• We are in a meltdown of civic order in our urban centers. We see it every day with our own eyes in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. Biden alleges that he does not support defunding the police and is therefore an opponent of the meltdown, but has he said a single word about the lunatic left prosecutors who decline to enforce the law? I don’t think so. They represent the throbbing heart of his party, i.e., the lunatic left.
• Biden could right himself to some extent if he changed course. The prospect is not in sight for reasons set forth above.
• Democrats have limited the damage they will suffer at the polls next November through gerrymandering. We badly need a change in policy and management, but we have a long way to go before we will have the opportunity to secure it. The damage done since January 2021 is almost unbelievable.
• Many observers more knowledgeable than I predict that inflation will come down this year. Without an adjustment in Fed policy beyond that which the Fed has advertised so far, however, I don’t see it. Biden’s new (unconfirmed) appointees to the Fed do not figure to lend a hand.
• The yammering and failure with the epidemic has been painful. Like most of the other bullet points here, it deserves an essay all by itself.
• In Stein’s Law the economist Herbert Stein famously held that if something cannot go on forever, it won’t. Does Stein’s law apply here? The Democrats will put it to the test, but not before they do more damage.
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