OPINION:
President Biden is a bust. It is a conclusion stemming from his first year in office that Americans cannot reasonably deny. Tempting as it is for the president’s political opponents to gloat, they should not: As its leader goes, so goes the nation. Rather, Americans ought to prepare for future opportunities to turn the page and begin a fresh chapter in U.S. leadership. They must also be prepared to steel themselves against the inevitable rage emanating from the president’s crestfallen comrades.
The Biden breakdown is enumerated by the wretched results of a recent Quinnipiac University poll, which found the president’s approval rating among adults has crashed to 33%, the lowest score of his presidency. Although a solid 75% of Democrats still stand behind their party’s head, a jarring 57% of politically fluid independents disapprove of the president’s performance. Unsurprisingly, 95% of Republicans join them in turning thumbs-down. Most unsettling, Quinnipiac found a 58-37% majority of Americans think the nation’s democracy is in danger of collapse.
Mr. Biden’s integrity-tainted election, followed by an unprecedented inauguration cordoned off from the public by steel fencing and National Guardsmen, set the tone for this period of extreme political division. Succeeding months have featured the president’s harsh war on domestic detractors and meek surrender in Afghanistan, his clamping down on U.S. energy output instead of economy-shattering inflation, and his utter disinterest in illegal immigrants carrying COVID-19 into the heartland while citing the pandemic as the rationale for violating the civil liberties of U.S. citizens.
Weary of trouble and wary of more to come describes the American psyche during the era of the Delawarean. Consequently, 2022 is shaping up to be the year for the return of the Republicans. A Gallup Poll published Monday found the proportion of voters identifying as Republican has surged to 47% over the past year, while Democrat affiliation has eroded to 42%, a 14-point swing.
As Mr. Biden eyes his predicament, he is counting on fatally flawed legislation to turn the table. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would award the federal government sweeping powers to regulate elections, effectively appropriating authority traditionally left to the states. Most ominously, it would override common-sense rules supported by 80% of voters requiring them to show identification to cast a ballot. Though the bill is doomed to fail in the Senate, the president hopes naive Democrats will react with indignation to its failure and return to the fold.
As a red wave builds toward Election Day, leftists whose violent street action frightened voters into anointing Mr. Biden are bound to erupt again over the prospect of watching their socialist dreams dashed. George Floyd 2.0, anyone?
After one year in office, Americans know what they have in President Biden: anti-Americanism. As they turn away from his banner in search of another, they must keep patriotism as their polestar. The path forward looks rugged.
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