Do not believe the polls.
Liberal news outlets are reporting with smug satisfaction that President Joe Biden is earning rave reviews. A recent headline from NBC News is typical: "Polls show Biden reaping solid approval ratings with popular policies."
They want us to believe that Biden’s progressive juggernaut is wildly popular, and that the president’s obvious inadequacies are a figment of right-wing imagination. They want us to think that common-sense Americans are OK with having our schools closed and our borders open, that we are on board with declaring our country racist and allowing riots to wreck our cities. They want us to believe that Biden is way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was.
It is not true. None of it.
For instance, Gallup’s most recent "Satisfaction with the United States" survey shows that 32% of the nation is "satisfied" with the way things are going, while 67% is dissatisfied. At this date in Trump’s presidency, the reading was almost exactly the same: 32% satisfied, 66% dissatisfied. And by the way, that figure reached 45% in February of last year, under Trump, a score not once recorded during President Obama’s eight years in office.
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That’s one indicator that the country is not entirely copacetic with current events. But, let’s look at those polls. It is true that Biden’s top-line poll numbers look all right.
One of the polls cited by NBC is by Quinnipiac, which shows 48% of respondents approving of the president’s job performance while 42% disapprove.
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But a deeper dive shows only 34% of the sample "strongly approve" of Biden while 36% "strongly disapprove." Among all-important Independents, 27% approve "strongly" while 38% disapprove "strongly."
Those tallies suggest support for the president is lukewarm. Lukewarm doesn’t get people to the voting booth, especially in off-year elections.
Meanwhile, the trends of these ratings are not favorable. The "strongly disapprove" category among registered voters has grown steadily from 32% in February to 38% last week while the number "strongly approving" dropped from 38% to 35%.
Moreover, since he was inaugurated, Quinnipiac reports that Biden’s ratings on honesty and leadership have fallen, and the number of voters who think (rightly) that the president is dividing the country has jumped.
Bottom line: voters are tepid on this president, as they always have been.
NBC also cites a Marist/NPR poll that just came out showing 52% of registered voters approving of Biden while 41% disapprove. Again, the number "strongly approving" is 26% while 31% "strongly disapprove."
Bottom line: voters are tepid on this president, as they always have been. Remember that 58% of the people who voted for Biden were voting against Donald Trump rather than for Joe Biden; that is a fact.
The liberal media is excited to see progressives in charge of the White House and rolling out an agenda of controversial policies that they support. Convincing Americans that packing the Supreme Court, junking the filibuster, outlawing right-to-work states, banning voter IDs or defunding the police are perfectly reasonable ideas is easier if the left-wing media pretends such policies are popular. They are not.
For example, NBC cites enthusiasm for Biden’s $2.3 trillion jobs plan, but fails to note that people like the program as long as they don’t have to pay for it. Funding it through higher corporate taxes or hiking taxes on high earners is acceptable, but few want to pay increased tolls (31%) or higher gas taxes (29%).
A more recent survey from CNBC shows only 36% of Americans support the infrastructure plan, beating out those who disapprove (33%) by only three points – within the margin of error. Thankfully, a majority of those surveyed (55%) is worried about deficits.
NBC’s piece contains only a glancing reference to Biden’s "unpopular handling of the border" and explains that dealing with people entering illegally "wasn’t something [Bide] put on his early to-do list, but which is now something he clearly owns."
That is a lie; on Biden’s first day in office he stopped construction on Trump’s border wall and within two weeks signed an executive order overturning other measures his predecessor took to stem the overwhelming flow of undocumented migrants. Biden "owns" the border mess for good reason.
We don’t need polls or NBC to tell us that the Biden team senses danger. Consider Biden’s flip-flop on the refugee issue. The White House announced Friday they would maintain Trump’s cap of 15,000 on refugees allowed to enter the country, even though Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress in February that the administration would admit up to 62,500 in the current fiscal year.
Naturally, progressive hell-fire rained down on the White House, which then within hours reversed its position and announced that there would be an increase in the cap after all.
Why would Biden be forced into such an embarrassing about-face? Because he (or whoever) knows that the border disaster is taking a serious toll on his popularity, and that opening the doors to a flood of refugees would further infuriate millions of Americans.
The NBC authors cheerily summarize: "Bottom line: Biden has been careful not to push policies that aren’t significantly popular with the public. (In fact, more controversial proposals to expand the Supreme Court and advance reparations bills are not coming from the White House.)"
But wait – isn’t Biden in charge? If offensive ideas like packing the court gain steam, isn’t that on his watch and should he not be held accountable? Americans will think so.
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Politically and personality-wise, Biden is too weak to resist the progressives he will need in 2022. By authorizing a commission to "study" court packing, for example, he may hope to placate the far Left, but the public will believe he has given his blessing to that offensive idea.
When Trump was in the White House, he too was held accountable, but there is a difference: Trump did run his party, and the country. No one doubted that for a minute.