Published on : 26/06/2022 – 04:10
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Since his election, the American president has chained crises: post-Covid recovery, inflation, supply problems, baby milk crisis and now the right to abortion after the liberalization of firearms by the Supreme Court. And even when he gets a few wins, they still taste bittersweet.
With our correspondent in New York, Loubna Anaki
It was to be a day of celebration. By signing the bipartisan gun control bill on Saturday, June 24, Joe Biden welcomed a monumental step. This is the most important gun legislation in nearly 30 years.
► To read also: United States: the Senate passes a law limiting access to weapons
But, faced with the American president, the journalists present at the ceremony only had questions about the Supreme Court decision to revoke abortion rights.
The law on weapons is overshadowed by this earthquake. So much so that one of Joe Biden’s relatives has hinted that the Supreme Court’s timing may not be a mere fluke. Especially when this same Court lifted gun restrictions in New York state…
Anyway, all this does not help the popularity of Joe Biden, down for the fourth consecutive week. It is now at its lowest since its election: 36%. A situation which according to experts could have consequences on the outcome of the mid-term elections next November.
New Yorkers unhappy with the federal state
Beyond the poll, anger is now measured in the street, the day after the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke the right to abortion. The anger of the demonstrators who are in favor of it does not fall. But if they are clearly angry with the magistrates of the Court, they are also angry with the system in place and the Democrats, Joe Biden in the lead.
« We are being deprived of our health rights “, protests Sharmin Hussain, who works in an abortion clinic in New York. She confides her frustration with Joe Biden’s responses, especially when he explains that the solution is to vote en masse for the Democrats in the midterm elections.
« The majority of people who are for the right to abortion voted for him! Telling us to vote is making us believe that elected officials are really defending our rights, while these same elected officials in Republican states are limiting our voting rights right now! How dare he tell us that we are responsible for a political system that is actually designed to take away our right to participate in democracy! »
However, this could still turn against the Republican camp at the polls, analyzes Lauric Henneton, lecturer at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin and specialist in the United States. ” The Democrats are embarking on an unprecedented mobilization effort. With the fact that the Supreme Court ruling is totally contrary to the state of opinion, we will have lots of Democrats who will be even more motivated than ever to vote. But above all, all the voters of the “middle”: the independents, the moderates, all those who for fiscal or economic reasons could close their eyes to society and vote Republican all the same, there, abortion is a red line for a a number of these people. And they’re deciding voters in increasingly tight elections, and that could cost Republican states dearly who might not get the Senate or the House back as they expect because the voters would make them pay for that shutdown- the. »
In addition, for pro-abortion protesters, Joe Biden could be more aggressive: for example, making federal buildings abortion sanctuaries in conservative states. Others suggest reforming the systems of power in place. ” He could appoint more judges to the Supreme Court! Otherwise, we will have to put pressure on Congress and elected officials in each state to ensure that we have less conservative abortion laws. “, suggests this woman.
A politicized Supreme Court
And it’s not just protesters who believe the president could do more. Two senators, Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith are calling on Joe Biden to declare a health emergency to release the funds needed to meet the Supreme Court’s decision.
« The Supreme Court is increasingly at odds with opinion, as we saw again a few days ago with a decision on firearms, highlighted They are perfectly aware of this, but they say that their job is not to follow opinion, it is to state the law. But they say the law in their own way: they are politicized judges, on one side or the other. »
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