OPINION:
President Biden is steering his historic presidency into the ground, opening a crater deep enough to hold his crashing approval numbers. With the 2022 elections looming on the horizon, time grows short for restoring faith in the flawed system that helped spawn this age of American distrust.
Mr. Biden’s record of failure is already one for the ages: His Oval Office tenure has overseen the lion’s share of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, the sharpest spike in inflation in 40 years, the highest gas prices in 14 years and a military retreat in Afghanistan viewed as the most demoralizing ever.
It’s unsurprising, then, that the president’s approval rating has plummeted to 33%, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, setting the standard for presidential disapproval at this point in office. Adding historical context, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone told Fox News the Biden administration’s economic performance is “worse than Jimmy Carter.”
Mr. Biden’s self-inflicted wounds, though, may be less consequential than the lasting damage to the electoral system caused by the balloting debacle that brought him to power. It was anything but, contrary to the Washington establishment claim, “the most secure election in history.”
Recent ABC/Ipsos polling found just 20% of Americans are very confident in the system, down from 37% in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol. Broken down by party, 30% of Democrats express trust in voting outcomes, followed by 20% of independents and only 13% of Republicans.
The minority of Americans believing Mr. Biden’s 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump was squeaky-clean is likely to narrow further. “2000 Mules,” a soon-to-be-released film produced by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, purports to expose a ballot-box stuffing campaign carried out in the battleground states of Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which swung the election in Mr. Biden’s favor.
In a separate, unprecedented initiative, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave at least $350 million to the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, which distributed the funds to boost 2020 voter turnout in mostly Democratic strongholds. So embarrassingly successful was the effort in benefiting Mr. Biden that the organization has announced “a five-year, $80 m[illion] nonpartisan program that’s open to every election department in the nation” — as kind of a less-objectionable do-over.
Mr. Biden’s victory led to uncountable claims of election fraud — some wild, others not. Judges, election officials and journalists indifferently tossed nearly all into a round file labeled “the Big Lie.” Americans, though, are not so cavalier toward their polling process. A 2021 Monmouth poll found that 81% of voters surveyed, including 62% of Democrats, back an identification requirement meant to ensure that every vote is legitimate.
Pennsylvania is weighing a raft of election integrity measures that would mandate voter ID and ban mass mail-in voting, drop boxes and outside funding for elections. Similar efforts are needed, post-haste, wherever dodgy balloting procedures threaten chaos during the approaching midterms. As former President Ronald Reagan advised, “Trust, but verify.”
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