President Biden’s policy agenda is incredibly popular, much more popular than his opponent’s. But Biden the man? Not so much.
The question now is whom to blame for the approval gap between the president and his agenda: voters, the media or Biden himself.
Democrats have long argued that their policies are more popular than those of Republicans. In a recent blind test conducted by YouGov, that was unmistakably true. The polling organization asked Americans what they thought about major policies proposed by Biden and Donald Trump without specifying who proposed them. The idea was to see how the public perceived ideas when stripped of tribal associations.
Biden’s agenda was the winner, hands down.
Of the 28 Biden proposals YouGov asked about, 27 were supported by more people than opposed them. Impressively, 24 received support from more than 50 percent of respondents.
Biden is the one that wrote the war on drugs bill back in the day. Yeah. He isn’t coming up with his policies. He is just a puppet of his presidential apparatus.
Don’t forget about supporting segregation! (Side note: yes, he’s that old.)
I’ve always thought people of all races were people and share the rights as all other human beings. Weird, innit?
He is responsible for a lot of policies that resulted in the mass incarceration we have today.
Biden works with far-right Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond and the Reagan Administration to pass the Comprehensive Control Act. The law expands federal drug trafficking penalties and civil asset forfeiture, allowing police to seize a person’s property without proving them guilty of a crime. Two years later, Biden co-sponsors the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which creates new mandatory minimum sentences for drugs, including the notorious 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. A conviction of possession of powder cocaine with intent to distribute carries a five-year sentence for 500 grams, while the same conviction for crack carries a five-year sentence for only 5 grams, so the harshest penalties are enacted on low-level drug sellers and impoverished drug users.
The controversial legislation known as the 1994 Crime Bill is Biden’s most significant contribution to the expansion of policing the drug war. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, written by Biden, increases funds for police and prisons, fueling an expansion of the federal prison population. It also newly applies the federal death penalty to 60 crimes, including large-scale drug trafficking and drive-by-shootings resulting in death. Biden brags after the law passes that “the liberal wing of the Democratic Party” is now for “60 new death penalties,” “70 enhanced penalties,” “100,000 cops,” and “125,000 new state prison cells.”
He’s only unpopular because of bots, trolls, and the likes of fox “news”. He’s what AMERICA needed after having a child with 34 felonies ruling by incompetence and revenge for four sad years.
No. Dismissing criticism like this is exactly how you got here. People have been raising legitimate concerns for years. And then he decides to 100 percent support genocide of Palestinians during the campaign. Not even conditioning military aid on compliance with international law. Which has the same effect as starting an unpopular war.
That debate was his last chance to convince undecided voters he still has 4 years of mental competency in him and he failed.
This is what happens when you run a sham primary with a weak candidate.
The budget is allocated by Congress and must be dispensed as allocated by the executive branch. Biden could not legally stop the weapons going to Israel. How many times must this be repeated? I see you and others in every single political thread trying to lay dead Palestinian children at Biden’s feet. Biden doesn’t want any more Palestinians to be destroyed- he seems to be a fundamentally decent person. Even though I strongly dislike Biden as president and hate the government of Israel, we all know Trump would ramp up the genocide for his buddy Netanyahu. Are you going to keep playing dumb? It’s that fucking simple.
Unless Biden steps away these are the choices. More, or less, genocide? Because it’s not going to stop until Israel decides it is done.
A. That’s not true, check out Trump’s last term for examples of not spending the money as Congress directed.
B. There are laws expressly forbidding the disbursement of aid to regimes committing war crimes. The Leahy Law and Foreign Assistance Act. The bar is internally low as well, “credible evidence”. Anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the last six months has seen credible evidence.
C. This is how you pressure politicians. Don’t tell us to vote for him because we can pressure him and then cry when we pressure him.
but what makes him qualified
as a career politician what has he done to affect your life so much that y’all immediately want to suck him off so hard?
was it the crime bills, the conservative far right immigration policies, his failed response to $7.25 minimum wage, was it women losing rights they have had for over half a century?
or is it strictly because he is a democrat and likes the color blue?
no the US does not need either of the two senile elders with mental decline
yes that happens after a certain age and anyone who thinks these two are mentally capable or immune to laws of time have never had to take care an elder before
Biden is 82 years old way past retirement and Trump is not far behind
What you’re not seeming to take into account is that every democrat I know has issues with Biden but since he is a career politician we know he’s capable of putting knowledgeable people in places he doesn’t have expertise in, which is what a competent leader does (which means I can’t even mention trump, doesn’t come close). The right doesn’t seem to understand you can get your ideas and policies across without full complete love and support for the candidate. He’s not the Dems supreme leader like the right has where everyone has to bow down, it’s a system and he’s just a head to rally behind while others get stuff done.
Hot take: that crime bill attack was always an interesting one to me.
In Hillary’s election she got heavily criticized for supporting it while non-conservatives supported it, Biden wrote it, Bill Clinton signed it, Bernie Sanders voted for it. I was somewhat surprised this election when people actually remembered that Biden wrote it at all. I didn’t hear much about it in 2020.
He’s only unpopular because of bots, trolls, and the likes of fox “news”.
And a years-long campaign by Republicans to tap into people’s prejudices against old people. Never mind they’d struggle to name one actual policy position they’d disagree and haven’t bothered to learn of all the things they’d wholeheartedly support if they were just aware of them.
There is some irony in that every time I talk to conservative friends/family about the things I loath Biden for, they’re reasons they should love him, if only the media reported on it.
He’s weak on the border? The one he tried to close, but was blocked by republicans, so he went around congress to illegally kick out refugees?
There’s too many brown people? He’s deported more people than Trump did.
He’s left Israel out to dry? He sent everything that was allocated to them, and more, and even bombed Yemen to support the genocide of Gaza.
Abortion? Who exactly is letting Roe lie dead?
Welfare? He ended covid protections, child poverty skyrocketed.
hes mostly unpopular because the media dosnt cover 90% of the shit he does, and what they do cover they cover vaguely and don’t credit him, because the media is heavily invested in another trump win because trump winning brings in ratings as people tune in every day to see what new horror he has released upon society, like they did in his first term.
Broadcast media has too much vested in a trump win to ever give biden appropriate coverage.
Its why all teh coverage of the debate was “BIDEN OLD, MUST QUIT” and almost nothing about trumps lies or the CNN moderator just letting trump go.
the media dosnt cover 90% of the shit he does
He is in the media spotlight constantly. If the President shits, we get news on it. And we have a plethora of friendly venues happy to report all the nice things Biden says he’s doing (until he gives up halfway through, because the Fifth Circuit court or a senior aid or a Senate Parliamentarian tells him to stop).
But it’s not selling, because peoples’ material conditions aren’t improving. The Inflation Reduction Act didn’t improve the cost of living. The college loan forgiveness benefited less than 1% of student borrowers. The exhorbitant sums sent to Ukraine haven’t ended the war or even clawed back any territory. The climate isn’t getting any cooler.
all teh coverage of the debate was “BIDEN OLD, MUST QUIT” and almost nothing about trumps lies
The coverage could have been “Biden Slams Trump on His Many Lies”. But Biden didn’t do that because he’s a senile old coot.
Oh gee! Why isn’t Rachel Maddow singing Joe Biden’s praises right now? Must be because she’s a Russian Bot who hates Democrats and America.
Imagine picking a Democratic candidate that can’t even handle the bullshit from fox news and then acting all surprised when his polls start to tank.
Fox News is an utter pile of garbage and by no means a trustworthy media outlet
Sure is, so maybe we should have someone who won’t take the bait and talk about their golf game during a presidential debate!
Just curious, what percentage of Americans do you think are under the influence of Russian bots? Because roughly a third voted for Trump and roughly a third didn’t vote, add in third party voters and I’m pretty sure that would mean a supermajority of Americans are Russian assets, which is a fascinating perspective.
Ok then, what percentage is believing, repeating, and being actively swayed by Russian propaganda?
I support the policies he took from the Sanders campaign to appear more progressive than he is, but he dropped most of those as soon as he got elected.
Almost like we should’ve elected someone who actually had an established history of fighting for those policies, and not someone who adapted them in a stunted form to win an election.
Corporations love his pork barrel spending though, yeah.
Mmm yes his policy on Israel has been a real acceptable one.
No complaints from the public whatsoever.
None at all.
It might not but since you effectively have a binary choice, which Israeli policy do you prefer, Bidens or Trump.
if it’s really a tie, then start looking at the other policies to see which is the lesser of the two evils.
This whole goddamned news cycle is about how we don’t have a binary choice. Or more accurately we could have a different binary choice. Biden isn’t locked in. If the primary argument to vote is “Trump is worse”, then it’s not important that Biden be the candidate on the other side.
The problem is the proposals are either dropped, or poisoned. Like he campaigned hard on unions, then he butchered rail workers bargaining power. He campaigned on renewable energy, then signed into law mandated sales of federal land for oil and gas extraction. The affordable care act has an unintended flaw making millions of Americans too poor to qualify for any kind of assistance getting health insurance, he campaigned on fixing that gap. Instead he raised how wealthy you can be and still qualify for assistance. He’s raised defense spending, dumped a half trillion more on the US highway system, and deported way more immigrants and shutdown asylum.
Like he campaigned hard on unions, then he butchered rail workers bargaining power
It should be mentioned that the people he appointed to the NLRB have been hugely positive for union activity and power. Even with the railroad thing (which they did end up getting concessions on) Biden is still the most pro union president in our lifetimes.
He campaigned on renewable energy, then signed into law mandated sales of federal land for oil and gas extraction.
They also passed the largest climate bill ever.
affordable care act has an unintended flaw making millions of Americans too poor to qualify for any kind of assistance getting health insurance, he campaigned on fixing that gap
The GOP has blocked every single attempt at improving the ACA and has tried to repeal it dozens of times.
He’s raised defense spending
Can you point to a someone who hasn’t? Congress routinely increases military spending without the military even requesting more funding.
I get that half measures don’t feel like wins, but when half the government is controlled by people who want to destroy it, they are. If we want sweeping legislation that fixes more issues, we have to strip enough power from the GOP to make it possible. Until we do that, half measures are really all we can hope for. We elect people because of their platform, and then we don’t give them enough votes to pass legislation. I’m not saying the Democrats/Biden are flawless here, but we have to live in reality.
which they did end up getting concessions on
They ran a hell of marketing on this, a non-rail union, that voted against the strike, made a statement that some rail workers got some sick days. Not all of them, not as much as they could have gotten, and most importantly of all, like i said, their bargaining power for the future is ruined.
They also passed the largest climate bill ever.
Ironically thats the same bill Im referring to. Again, they did great marketing.
The GOP has blocked every single attempt at improving the ACA and has tried to repeal it dozens of times.
Like i said, they did make changes to it. No attempt was made to fix the poor americans not getting any help.
Can you point to a someone who hasn’t?
Doesnt change anything
Okay I get that you don’t find those particular changes to be good enough, and I would agree with you. That doesnt make them lazy, and they’re still the best chance we have. And you’re completely ignoring the structural obstacles that they literally don’t have the votes to overcome, even if every single Democrat in Congress agreed.
If we had given the Democrats a fillibuster proof majority and the White House for more than 2 months in the past couple decades I’d agree with you. But we haven’t done our job well enough here, just as much as they haven’t done theirs well enough. Framing the entire party as a lost cause and ineffective without looking at all the reasons why only hurts us.
ETA: I do believe the ACA and the IRA were absolutely worthwhile and have positive benefits. Just because you don’t like parts of the bill doesn’t mean they aren’t.
