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.

Peter Daou

Jul 21, 2022

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

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.prBiden approval hits another new low as more Democrats sour on him, poll findsDemocrats’ approval of President Biden has dropped 9 points, pushing him to just a 36% approval rating in the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll.

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.comMost Democrats Don’t Want Biden in 2024, New Poll ShowsWith the country gripped by a pervasive sense of pessimism, the president is hemorrhaging support.

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

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.