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Why Has Biden's Approval Rating Crashed?
Biden promised rich donors that 'nothing would fundamentally change.' He kept his promise. Now we're all paying the price.
UPDATE - 7/21/22
NPR Politics@nprpolitics
President Biden's approval rating has hit a new low of just 36%, and his approval among Democrats has dropped 9 points since June, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds.
n.pr
Biden approval hits another new low as more Democrats sour on him, poll finds
2:25 AM · Jul 21, 2022
24 Reposts · 105 Likes
UPDATE - 7/11/22
This post was originally published in January. And things have only gotten worse for Joe Biden and establishment Democrats. The latest NY Times poll is absolutely abysmal for Dems:
President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating.
We Can Build A Better World 🕊@BreeNewsome
This is a problem of Biden’s leadership specifically. He’s hemorrhaging support because neither his actions nor words reflect the urgency people feel. His admin, esp comms, has been dismissive or outright hostile toward key constituencies several times
nytimes.com
Most Democrats Don’t Want Biden in 2024, New Poll Shows
11:31 AM · Jul 11, 2022
215 Reposts · 952 Likes
Nina Turner@ninaturner
According to a poll this morning, 94% of Dems under 30 prefer a candidate other than Biden in 2024.
People are faced with uncertainty.
High prices, climate change, healthcare, student debt—these are issues that must be addressed.
These are voters Dems need in ‘24 to win.
1/2
1:48 PM · Jul 11, 2022
63 Reposts · 411 Likes
The fascist GOP is now poised to retake the House:
Recent GOP polling in roughly a dozen swing districts offers a bleak portrait of how President Joe Biden’s anemic approval ratings are threatening to doom battle-tested swing-seat incumbents — and nudge once-safe districts into the middle of the danger zone.
Since the usual pundits and strategists love claiming the problem is that Biden has moved “too far left,” let’s look at his record, which is decidedly not leftist. If anything, Biden’s poll numbers are tanking because he has refused to embrace popular leftist policies. Campaigning as an ethical alternative to Trump, only to perpetuate many of Trump’s policies, isn’t exactly a recipe for success.
This is Joe Biden’s actual record:
NO minimum wage hike
NO serious student debt cancellation
NO effective pandemic strategy (more deaths than Trump)
NO medicare for all — or the promised public option
NO more Roe v. Wade
NO filibuster reform, just speeches
NO voting rights protection, just more speeches
NO court expansion, just a sham commission
NO end to racist policing
NO end to gun violence
NO end to deportations & abuse of asylum-seekers
NO end to cages for migrant children
NO end to brutalizing Afghanistan and Yemen
NO end to droning civilians without repercussions
NO end to huge military budgets (bigger than Trump’s)
NO end to arming and coddling oppressive regimes
NO meaningful climate action
NO end to oil drilling and fossil fuel subsidies
NO end to poverty, hunger, and homelessness
NO end to billionaires pocketing trillions
That’s just a partial list of Biden’s broken promises — and broken moral compass. Corporate Democrats like Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi have always relied on performative opposition and theatrics to pacify their supporters while preserving the status quo.
But there’s only so much Kente cloth wearing you can do, and only so much blame you can pin on Joe Manchin and the Senate Parliamentarian before people see the truth: Democratic leaders, like Republicans, are there to protect the ruling class.
Leftists predicted every bit of this. Biden ran on the claim that he was the only Democrat who could defeat Trump, but a tin can could have defeated Donald Trump in 2020. Biden was the candidate of the status quo, which is why the establishment rallied around him. Now we see the consequences. And we’re all paying the price.
From the war on abortion rights to the epidemic of gun violence to racist policing, America is under siege by the far right, which controls the GOP. Those who have turned to the Democratic establishment for help have been sorely disappointed.
Even liberal stalwarts like Debra Messing have had it with the feckless Democratic leadership. This CNN article depicts the staggering depth of Dem ineptitude:
Debra Messing was fed up. The former "Will & Grace" star was among dozens of celebrity Democratic supporters and activists who joined a call with White House aides last Monday to discuss the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The mood was fatalistic, according to three people on the call, which was also co-organized by the advocacy group Build Back Better Together.
Messing said she'd gotten Joe Biden elected and wanted to know why she was being asked to do anything at all, yelling that there didn't even seem a point to voting. Others wondered why the call was happening.
That afternoon, participants received a follow-up email with a list of basic talking points and suggestions of Biden speech clips to share on TikTok.
The idea that you can fight rightwing Republicans by sharing Biden speech clips on TikTok is jaw-droppingly out of touch.
Michigan Deb 🌽@MichiganDeb1
Encapsulates #Democrats Leadership perfectly. Combination of behind the scenes plan to do absolutely nothing to meet the needs of the people and the moment; but taking the time to plan TikTok marketing opportunities. Democrats aren't inept, they do this $#&@ by design. Smdh.
Peter Daou @peterdaou
Oh my, these four paragraphs: https://t.co/ylQdX4fZ06
7:20 PM · Jul 5, 2022
23 Reposts · 49 Likes
To effectively oppose the far right, we need direct action, strikes, protests, and much more. Voting for the same old corporate Democrats is a recipe for disaster. Many of them want to lose to the GOP, because it means more fundraising. Axios reports:
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for instance, "broke cycle-long records" with its online content immediately following the [Roe v. Wade] ruling, according to a DSCC aide. The day of the ruling and the day after were its best and second-best days of the cycle, respectively.
It’s deeply frustrating to see how easily Democratic leaders pick the pockets of their supporters by letting the GOP dominate them, then fearmongering that they need more votes and money.
Walker Bragman@WalkerBragman
In a matter of days, the Supreme Court has stripped long-established rights away from millions of people and is poised to dismantle our entire government.
Meanwhile, all Biden and his Dem majorities can muster are fundraising emails, calls to vote harder, and songs and poems.
10:34 PM · Jun 25, 2022
92 Reposts · 297 Likes
Leftists have been correct all along: We cannot keep enabling the GOP’s enablers. It’s time to actually fight, not to pretend to “resist.” Stopping the march of fascism in America will require courage, principle, self-reflection, and brutal honesty. And it means supporting activists and organizers who are putting their bodies on the line, not voting harder for the people who promise to be the opposition but are complicit in protecting the oppressive system.
Fascist Republicans Kill Roe v. Wade, Useless Democrats Let It Happen
The GOP's assault on women's rights lands a devastating blow.
It’s official: ROE V. WADE IS OVERTURNED
The Supreme Court cements its status as a full-fledged tool of the far right.
Kimberlé Crenshaw@sandylocks
No unelected body should have the power to strip people of their human right to autonomy, especially an institution as plagued by controversy, illegitimacy, and naked partisanship as the United States Supreme Court. @sandylocks on #DobbsVJWHO #RoeVWade #LiberateAbortion
2:31 PM · Jun 24, 2022
166 Reposts · 381 Likes
Sawyer Hackett@SawyerHackett
Start the clock. 30 days from today it will be a first degree felony—punishable by life in prison—for a Texas doctor to perform an abortion for a woman raped and impregnated by a family member.
This is what the Supreme Court has done.
2:22 PM · Jun 24, 2022
3.64K Reposts · 6.52K Likes
The end of Roe v. Wade come as no surprise to activists who have fought the GOP as it methodically crushes women’s reproductive rights across the country. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which controls the White House, Senate, and House, has always treated Roe as a fundraising opportunity.
🌽🌽 Erica, The White Trash Socialist 🌽🌽™️@herosnvrdie69
I have quite literally already received 8 separate fundraising emails asking me to donate to protect Roe V Wade from democrats who currently control the house, senate and White House. Incredible.
4:43 AM · May 3, 2022
404 Reposts · 3.2K Likes
Zoé@ztsamudzi
We voted for Biden to save the country from the precipice of fascism or whatever and what do we have two years in? No COVID support or relief, repro rights rolled back, queer and trans people under attack, no ambitious climate plan, no debt relief. But vote blue!
1:52 AM · May 3, 2022
2.07K Reposts · 7.28K Likes
Republicans have played the long game on abortion, systematically dismantling women’s rights at the local and national level. The Democratic establishment, on the other hand, has been an abject failure on the issue.
Breya Johnson@TheBlackLayers
You have a Democratic Party that for years and even many now wouldn’t even say abortion is a right. They wouldn’t even move to remove the Hyde Amendment. They wouldn’t codify roe. This is not ONLY on republicans.
2:11 AM · May 3, 2022
913 Reposts · 3.39K Likes
The Local Sun@DanieTHBee
They had the opportunity to codify Roe V Wade into law during Obama’s term and said it wasn’t a priority. One would say that a certain party does their part to maintain the tentative status of ‘human rights’ as a bargaining chip for their campaigns at this point
11:19 AM · May 3, 2022
46 Reposts · 98 Likes
Addie 🏳️⚧️ (warning:nerd)@StarryNerd99
@peterdaou The dems also promised to codify Roe v. Wade in 2020, 2016, 2008, and I believe even 1992? So either they don't give a fuck about abortion, or they're just really incompetent to the level of stretching the limits of human believability
3:06 AM · May 3, 2022
32 Reposts · 109 Likes
It doesn’t help that early in his career, Joe Biden said the Supreme Court went “too far” on abortion rights in Roe. And in May 2022, Biden rejected the idea of ending the filibuster to protect abortion rights.
In 2017, Nancy Pelosi claimed abortion is “kind of fading as an issue” for Democrats. “It really is,” she emphasized.
And of course, Republicans aren’t done. With Democrats focused on protecting the status quo for the billionaire class, fascism’s march continues…
Prashant ❤️@CoolAssPuppy
They will gut Roe and Casey.
They are coming for Loving, Griswold, and Obergefell. You can absolutely count on that.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they came for Brown after that.
Dark times in America.
12:59 AM · May 3, 2022
249 Reposts · 876 Likes
LISTEN - On March 15th, after Missouri Republicans proposed a bill that would make it a crime to terminate an ectopic pregnancy, I had a conversation with friends and fellow activists about the GOP’s assault on women. My wife Leela Daou, who nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy, describes her experience. Click to listen.
The January 6 Hearings Are Feckless Political Theater
The Democratic leaders who are supposedly “defending democracy” spent the Trump years enabling him, and have perpetuated his policies.
The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a condemnable, criminal, murderous act, aided and abetted at the highest levels of the Republican Party.
So what makes the January 6 Committee hearings such a farce?
The Democratic leaders who are supposedly “defending democracy” spent the Trump years enabling him and his thugs, funding his policies, and giving him expanded powers. And despite having majority control, the Democratic Party has perpetuated some of Trump’s worst policies.
The hearings have become an opportunity for Trump’s associates to repair their public image. Liz Cheney voted with Trump 93% of the time, but is now a liberal hero. Even contemptible GOP stalwart Mike Pence, one of Trump’s most loyal accomplices, is being lauded as a “patriot.”
Over the past few years, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have repeatedly called for a stronger GOP. This, after having rehabilitated George W. Bush and his war criminal buddies. In recent months, Biden has called Mitch McConnell a “rational Republican” and a “man of honor.”
Simply put: The duopoly will never hold itself accountable.
As Chris Hedges eloquently explains:
The committee, which most Republicans boycotted, hired James Goldston, a documentary producer and former president of ABC News, to turn the hearings into engaging television with slick packaging and an array of pithy soundbites. The result is, and was meant to be, politics as reality television, a media diversion that will change nothing in the dismal American landscape. What should have been a serious bipartisan inquiry into an array of constitutional violations by the Trump administration has been turned into a prime-time campaign commercial for a Democratic Party running on fumes. The epistemology of television is complete. So is its artifice.
On June 17, Peter Daou spoke to Senate candidate Matthew Hoh (Green Party), and WA-02 congressional candidate Jason Call about current events through an anti-establishment lens. In particular, the January 6 hearings and how the ruling parties shield one another from meaningful consequences.
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