Following President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, a drastic decrease can be seen in his approval rating. On January 25th, he had 55% of the nation’s support, whereas, for most of November and in the current month of December he is braced by a measly 43%. Some polls even peg the President’s approval figure as low as a paltry 36%. Why have President Biden’s approval figures dropped so low and are they really his fault? Furthermore, as the midterm nears the questions begs to be asked, what does this mean for the future of his administration and the Democratic party?
The low ratings are likely a product of his ineffectiveness on the COVID-19 front, increased inflation and heightened prices of gasoline, and the disastrous decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. Following former President Trump’s COVID-19 response where he repeatedly denied the virus’s existence, refused to advise mitigation tactics, and even recommended the consumption of toxic substances as home remedies, Joe Biden’s campaign promised a COVID crackdown. But a look at the U.S.’s COVID infection rate shows that even with a vaccine rollout, the Biden administration has been relatively ineffective at slowing the virus’s spread.( i quibble enormously with this—-but yours is an editorial) Thanks to the Delta variant, there were significantly more COVID cases this fall than there were during the same period one year ago, and the new Omicron variant and the impending holiday season will almost certainly yield another spike. Whether it is the fault of the Biden administration, a population tired of abiding by guidelines, or vaccination hesitancy, the administration has not subdued the virus to the degree they promised the American people.
Following the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent Taliban seizing of power, many blame President Biden for stranding hundreds of U.S. citizens in the now-military-extremist-run country. While the majority of U.S. citizens were in favor of the military’s withdrawal, Biden’s execution was viewed largely unfavorably. While Biden was not behind the deal that resulted in the withdrawal, as this was the work of former President Donald Trump, he still took “responsibility for the decision,” but “respectfully disagree(s)” with those who assert that the matter could have been handled in a more orderly fashion. The withdrawal from Afghanistan has yielded unfortunate circumstances, but it is hard to pinpoint any Biden-made decisions that led to them – the 20-year conflict seemed bound to end poorly.
According to Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, “Foreign policy usually doesn’t drive midterms unless American lives or economic interests are directly at stake. The Kabul incident will hurt Biden in the short run but will drag down the party only if there is a hostage crisis or an Afghanistan-based terror attack.” Because no such hostage crisis or terror attack has occurred as of now, there is reason to believe that the Democratic party will not suffer midterm losses because of the ill-viewed withdrawal from Afghanistan. And due to the fact that the political left is generally more concerned by the COVID pandemic than the right, without another massive outbreak, it is unlikely that unsatisfactory COVID infection rates will lose the Democrats many seats in Congress. The economy, however, is a major driving force for voters on both sides of the spectrum, and the increases in inflation and the cost of living has proven tangible to many Americans – gas prices are hovering around a national average of $3.40 per gallon, a sharp increase from the sub-$2.20 gallons that Americans enjoyed during Donald Trump’s first year in office. Although gas prices are nowhere near even recent highs, like when they were over $4.50 per gallon for large stretches in 2011 and 2012 and hit $5 per gallon in 2008, the price to fill up a tank is still galling to many. Supply chain issues, which have plagued the service and retail industries, also figure to harm the Democrats’ chances of retaining their Congressional majorities at the midterms.
Without an economic turnaround that is directly felt by the American public, the Democrats, and Joe Biden’s administration appears to be at real risk of losing their Congressional majorities, and although experts say that Joe Biden’s approval rating is unlikely to drop more than it already has, current trends show no signs of an uptick.
