The downgrade of the president’s rating dragged him to a dead end
The blunders in the foreign policy of the White House are a real disaster for the administration
Is Joe Biden failing? Less than nine months after he became president, a growing number of Americans and many foreign allies seem to think so. Gallup and Rasmussen polls last week lowered its national approval rating by minus 10 points. His overall average rating is minus 4 points, compared to his positive approval rating of 19 points in January when he took office.
These figures show that one of the steepest declines in presidential popularity is under way. Jolting is also a new Harvard-Harris study that gives Donald Trump a 48% approval rating versus Biden’s 46%. Among independent voters and in states that are controversial for Democrats, they also look bleak. In Iowa, 62% disapprove of Biden’s performance, while 70% say the country is on the wrong track. Both Michigan and Virginia have similar stories.
Many factors are contributing to what is beginning to look like a presidential collapse. At home, the didactic treatment of the Biden pandemic drew growing criticism during the Covid summer wave. The continuing ill-treatment of migrants on the Mexican border, which he has promised to end, is also tarnishing his image. The Biden-backed police reform agenda sparked by George Floyd’s death was rejected in Congress last week.
Abroad, Biden’s reputation in foreign policy was shattered by Afghanistan’s failure to withdraw and kill US troops and dozens of civilians. Even the loyal allies of the United States now loudly complained about the chaotic and poor management of the crisis in the Asian country.
The rift with France over the defense treaty between the United States and Britain and Australia (Aukus) has deepened frustration with its commitment to multilateralism.
Relationships with other superpowers are not very rosy either. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to cancel the summit. Russia’s unfriendly leader, Vladimir Putin, met with him in Geneva for personal glory, after which he continued to drive it still independently. Biden waited for days last week for a telephone conversation with the angry president of France, Emmanuel Macron, but mistrust between them remained.
Biden’s speech to the UN last week helped us explain the frustration and anxiety that is spreading around the world. He sounded tired and uninspired. This reinforced the touches of the cartoon about “Sleepy Joe”, which has become popular recently. Even Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Biden had indeed fallen asleep during talks with Naftali Bennett, his successor as Israeli prime minister.
The essence of his speech was also disappointing. It is clear that Biden’s boast that the United States is no longer at war after Afghanistan is untrue. Think only of Syria and Iraq, think of Somalia, think of other countries where American troops are stationed. His claim that he is waging a new war for “ruthless diplomacy” has provoked a frown from diplomatically arrogant France, as well as in Brussels and Beijing.
Biden insists he does not want to go to war with China.
“We will stand up for our allies and friends and oppose the attempts of the stronger states to dominate the weaker ones … and we are not looking for a new Cold War or a world divided into hard blocs,” he said. This statement is strange after the Aukus Pact, the renewed Quad alliance with Japan, India and Australia and its call for armaments in the Indo-Pacific region. When Biden says “America is back,” some who originally hailed it, such as German exporters, are now frightened or quiet.
Foreign reactions to Biden’s policies are important, but not as important as domestic ones. It is the Americans who will support or limit the power of this presidency over the next 12 months. That’s all the time Biden has left before next year’s midterm elections to pass an extremely ambitious legislative program that includes a $ 3.5 trillion social spending plan. and an $ 1.1 trillion infrastructure package.
Obstacles include the unwavering Republican Party, as well as retaliatory Donald Trump. They also include weak or non-existent majorities in the House and Senate, and another unwelcome surprise is the vocal domestic opposition of “progressive” Democrats. If these two last-minute risk factors, arrogance and harassment, are linked, then hardline liberals will take risks and both sides will be shipwrecked.
Biden desperately needs a big legislative victory to stop his rating from slipping and to show skeptics what he can achieve. He also needs Congress to prevent the government from slowing down later this week and possibly defaulting on US debt next month by agreeing to transform funding and increase the legal ceiling on federal loans. Given Republican hostility, this tends to zero.
A fierce guerrilla struggle continues for immigration reform. Biden and his very low-level vice president, Kamala Harris, maliciously dubbed the “queen of borders” by her critics, were attacked last week by their own special envoy, who resigned over the harassment of Haitian migrants. Biden’s continued use of punitive measures to deter Trump frightens his supporters, and the right says he is too lenient.
Did Biden try to do something too much and too fast? Probably. There have been significant successes with vaccination, the $ 1.9 trillion COVID aid bill, and the return to the Paris Climate Agreement. In terms of imposing social change, he seems to want to make up for what his cautious former boss, Barack Obama, failed to do, all at once. If Biden, 79, in November, is an old man in a hurry, it’s because he’s running out of time, and so are the votes for him.
Afghanistan’s failure and the Aukus Pact reveal a tin ear. Biden does believe in alliances, but when the stakes go down, like his predecessors, he begins to act only in the interests of America, deaf to the consequences for others. So is the situation inside his home, and he really believes in reform. But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t silence the reality of a divided nation or the disastrous but still powerful legacy of Trump, who daily plans his fall from his post on his Florida golf course.
Recent sociological trends and political dynamics in Washington show that Republicans will take over Congress next year, thwarting much of Biden’s agenda and his failed one-time presidency. This grim scenario may change. Hope it works. But the democratic world can only watch the unfolding American drama and fear another nightmare in 2024, and can only mutter, “Please, not Trump again!”
(Translation for “Trud” – Pavel Pavlov)
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