OPINION:
The regular fall routine is being roiled by jolting reminders that everyday life has become anything but normal. The nation under President Biden has taken a troublesome turn for the worse.
That’s the conclusion of a survey published last week by the polling firm CIVIQs, which finds an underwhelming 24% of Americans reckon the United States is moving in the right direction, compared with 67% who say the nation is heading the wrong way.
With more than 400,000 respondents, the poll represents a broad cross section of the citizenry’s outlook on the current national scene.
Mining deeper into the data, a vanishingly tiny 2% of Republicans are on board with President Biden’s steering of the country. Although normally of moderate disposition, just 17% of independents believe the country is on the right track.
Even among Mr. Biden’s fellow Democrats, only a minority, 49%, favor the direction the president is taking the nation in.
Other opinion surveys confirm the general trend in public sentiment. They include an August Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, which found that only 36% of Americans approve of Mr. Biden’s handling of the all-important economy.
“Bidenomics,” the president’s foolishly self-referenced economic policy moniker, is better described as “Bidenflation.” The administration’s overspending and overregulating are driving up the cost of living so rapidly that incomes can’t keep pace, leaving 60% of wage-earners struggling to get by, living from paycheck to paycheck.
Prospering from the fruit of one’s labor is the American dream, but the dream is shattered when the fruit can’t feed your family.
Looking out the front door, the number of Americans saying immigration is a “good thing” had reached its lowest level in a decade, according to a July Gallup Poll.
The downturn is not surprising. Citizens chafe at the president’s insistence on shoveling dollars by the tens of billions into Ukraine’s defense while leaving the U.S. southern border exposed to the rush of illegal immigrants by the millions.
New Yorkers witnessed weekend protests over shelters that have sprung up in family-oriented neighborhoods to house some of the city’s 100,000 uninvited guests. The White House labels it a local problem, but Big Apple dwellers aren’t fooled: The trail of trouble originates with Mr. Biden’s policies.
Looking ahead, Americans can find little reason to expect a return to normalcy. As they begin mulling their choices for national leadership in 2024, voters observe the president’s Democratic allies rallying around retired Harvard University professor Laurence Tribe’s effort to ban the foremost Republican challenger, Donald Trump, from running for president again in 2024.
The 14th Amendment’s “disqualification clause,” they argue, renders him automatically ineligible due to his role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, events that they call an “insurrection.” Never mind that none of the four indictments of the former president includes the charge of insurrection.
President Biden promised to lead the nation toward unity. Knowingly or not, he has perpetuated division and dissatisfaction. Americans see nothing but more turbulence going forward. While picking up the pace for life after Labor Day, they nevertheless want to get off the chaotic Biden pathway.
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