President Joe Biden waves onstage with California Governor Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, during a campaign event on September 13, 2021 in Long Beach, California. (Photo: Wally Skalij via Getty Images)
It immediately fills me with dread when I think about the possibility of another presidential election being a Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump contest, but I can understand why the current commander-in-chief is more interested, as it is his best chance to remain president. .
When asked about a possible rematch between him and his former political opponent in 2024, President Biden told an Israeli television interviewer: “I’m not predicting, but I wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Considering his low approval ratings in recent months and the growing talk about whether Biden, who turns 80 later this year, should remain at the top of the ticket, that’s understandable.
in a new Quinnipiac University In a poll released Wednesday, just 31% of American adults said they approve of the way Biden is handling his job, while 60% disapprove. the day before that, a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Biden’s public approval rating had fallen to 36%, matching his all-time low in that same poll. With inflation and COVID-19 running rampant, it makes sense that Biden’s popularity would take a hit, but there remains a growing specific distrust in Biden’s capabilities as president.
In that same Quinnipiac University poll, 71% of respondents said they would not like to see Biden run for re-election, including 54% of Democrats. By comparison, while 60% of Americans do not want Trump to run for re-election, 69% of Republicans support such a move.
“There is little enthusiasm for a repeat of the Trump or Biden presidency,” explained Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac University, in a report on survey results.
“But while Trump still commands his base, President Biden is underwater when it comes to support from his own party,” Malloy said.
This is reflected in additional data found in a New York Times-Siena College poll where 64% of Democrats said they wanted a different candidate than Biden in 2024. However, According to a new report from washington post, Biden’s predecessor plays a much more central role in determining whether or not he sticks to his past commitments to seek re-election than any survey.
With Trump confirming in a recent interview with New York magazine that he has already made up his mind to run for president again and talk about him planning a september adBiden is said to maintain that he is still better positioned to beat him.
Biden is correct that if Americans had to choose between him and Trump, they would probably choose him, but whether or not we deserve to suffer that choice is a question that deserves further scrutiny.
Described in The Washington Post report as “a person close to Biden, speaking on condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment,” a source said of Biden’s feelings about a 2024 rematch with Trump: “He feels he has something to show. It just makes him angrier.”
As easy as it is to understand and share Biden’s resentment of Trump and the desire to ensure he never becomes president again, it is downright depressing to think that the future of America is determined by men in their 80s.
And infuriating, because no matter how you frame it, such an unpopular president can be defeated by anyone, even a famous and racist former president who seems to like to dabble in criminal behavior.
Although I agree with Recent reviews of Perry Bacon Jr. that much of Biden’s low poll numbers can be attributed to negative media coverage of the Biden presidencyAt the same time, during the last Democratic presidential primaries, much of the national press perpetuated the idea that only an old white centrist could defeat Trump. Biden fit the bill and undoubtedly edged out Trump in the race. It is only now that Americans are facing the reality that looking like a typical American president alone will not quell the simultaneous number of ongoing crises plaguing the country.
I know that many of Biden’s supporters, at least online, don’t like to criticize his administration and the Democratic Party under the guise that the alternatives are far worse, but there needs to be real acceptance that whether they like it or not . No, in the eyes of many, Biden has not met the moment and they would like an alternative.
Certainly, Biden cared more about the health of Americans than Trump did, but the pandemic is still raging. Worse yet, it appears that the same mistakes our federal government made about COVID-19 are being replicated in the growing monkeypox crisis.
The failure to pass meaningful legislation tied to police reform, voting rights, abortion rights and climate change is indeed a snub to Congress, but for a man who previously wanted his presidency to mirror that of Lyndon B. Johnson, is a testament to his ineffectiveness as party leader for comparison.
Meanwhile, as Republicans fuel fears about the LGBTQ community or teach white children about American racism while plotting to help Trump successfully steal the upcoming election, Biden and his party aren’t even bothering to mount a real defense. .
Who cares if Joe Biden remains friends with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) when McConnell plans to ruin the lives of groups that make up the base of the Democratic Party?
I do not want kicking an elderly man while he is sick with COVID-19, but an event that has since been canceled in the wake of his infection speaks to the disconnect between Biden and his voters.
On Thursday, Biden sought asks Congress for $37 billion for crime prevention programs before the legislative elections in November. Considering the controversy surrounding the inability of the Uvalde Police Department to protect children from a mass murderer with all the money and equipment in the world, will law enforcement be given even more money while people fight? for surviving is the best midterm election message? Eye, these are the the same people are quite abusive towards women and men who have been away protesting restrictions on abortion.
And somehow, Biden is yettalking fondly of having nice lunches with segregationists senators as current Republican senators openly flirting with banning interracial marriage again.
Biden is correct that if Americans had to choose between him and Trump, they would probably choose him, but whether or not we deserve to suffer that choice is a question that deserves further scrutiny.
It seems that many Americans are not tied to another Biden candidacy and are open to a different option.
When I think about potential replacements, I think California Gov. Gavin Newsom should be keeping Biden up most of the night.
Of course, Newsom swears he has no plans to run for president in 2024.
“I’ve tried to say ‘no, no way’ in every possible way,” Newsom previously said Fox LA host Elex Michaelson.
However, CNBC reports Those two Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris have begun engaging donors in the event Biden chooses not to seek re-election. I would not do it underestimate Harris’s chancesbut his popularity has suffered greatly under this administration.
Also, when we have a constituency that elected a racist game show host president and has expressed an interest in making Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson president, I wouldn’t rule out the political viability of a man who looks like he’s playing president on television. . (Arguably Kamala Harris too, in a Shonda Rhimes production, right?)
Yet what ultimately sets Newsom apart from Harris or other presidential hopefuls like Pete Buttigieg is that he seems to understand the party he’s up against in a tone that Biden and his administration don’t.
On a July 16 episode of Fox LA’s “the problem is”, Newsom stressed that the Democratic Party and its supporters must unite and organize with “ferocity” to combat the “cruelty” of the Republican Party.
“You also have to recognize what you’re up against, and right now we’re up against the ruthlessness of the Republican Party,” Newsom said. said.
“That’s not a cheap shot. You see what’s happening with all the progress we’ve made in the 21st century, all the rights that we’ve in many ways taken for granted since the ’60s, are being reversed in real time,” Newsom added. “This is a totally different time.”
He added that the Democratic Party must “wake up with a different mindset” that goes beyond being collaborative — a mindset clung to by Biden, who describes himself as a creature of the Senate.
“The facts are not on your side, but they dominate the narrative,” Newsom said of the GOP. “And in this world right now, you dominate the narrative, you win. And that is what worries me”.
Yes, the GOP has gone completely white and coup-mongering Christian nationalist (in the US), but Biden is acting like he can’t expand the Supreme Court, declare a national emergency over climate change, say bad things about McConnell or Sen Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), or stop giving more money to police who never stopped for killing unarmed Black people.
Gavin Newsom has had his own challenges in California, but at least he’s trying to fight Republicans in ways that reflect their habits, like his recent choice to run ads challenging the governor of Florida, and the likely Republican presidential nominee, Ron DeSantis. I think Donald Trump will trample DeSantis in a Republican primary, but I don’t think it’s a guarantee that he can run over any Democratic challenger not named Joe Biden, certainly not one who intends to respond to attacks in the same way. And if it’s so hard to beat an aging racist who slurs his words onstage and tried to violently overthrow the American government, the county arguably cannot be saved.
I’ve heard some argue that our focus should be on the midterm elections instead of 2024, but what makes that hard to do when Biden is unpopular and shows an unwillingness to change? Biden’s successful presidential candidacy benefited from a narrative about returning to political normality, but Biden’s numbers show that only Republicans generally have a lasting love for things old, white, and reductionist.
Democrats can afford to look around, so don’t be surprised if nothing changes, they’ll look further west.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.