As President Biden and Democrats face a new election in the New Year, it is increasingly obvious that they are in big trouble. A recent Wall Street Journal poll shows Biden’s approval rating hitting a new low. About 37% of respondents in the Journal poll said they approve of the job he is doing as president, while 61 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view.
Former President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod called it “very, very dark” for Biden’s re-election campaign.
Meanwhile, a Gallup poll found that 56% of Americans view the Republican Party unfavorably and 58% saying the same of the Democratic Party. The GOP’s current standing with Americans is even stronger on matters of national security, where it leads the Democratic Party by 22 points for protecting the country from international terrorism and military threats.
This occurred as a KKF.org poll found that many immigrants do not feel that their views or the interests of immigrants generally are well represented by either of the two major U.S. political parties, and half of all immigrants say that who the president is makes no difference in their lives.
I don’t need polls to tell me the administration and Democrats are in big trouble. The fact is that the administration continues to alienate its base of progressive and immigrant voters as it tries hard to be Trump-light, especially on immigration.
The man who came into the office promising to undo the aggressive immigration policies of the Trump administration and usher in a more humane approach is now making a deal with Republicans in the Congress to gut asylum and refugee legal protections in exchange for foreign military aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel.
The White House seems to be opening toward the Republican position, potentially accepting a plan that would allow immediate expulsions akin to those used during the COVID-19 pandemic, detention for migrants, and deportations of those who do not seek asylum.
Progressive and Latino Democratic lawmakers and advocates are aghast, and rightfully so, because the changes in immigration policy mirror the far-right goals of the GOP, which is shoring up their own base while Dems move further and further into oblivion.
Caribbean immigrant and White House mouthpiece Karine Jean-Pierre, however, sees this as a “bipartisan compromise.”
“(The president) believes we need to fix what’s happening with the broken immigration system,” she said. “He’s willing to find a bipartisan compromise to get that done.”
Perhaps what Jean-Pierre should note is that this so-called “bipartisan compromise” will continue to piss off the president’s fast-dwindling base, paving the way for the right wing to win again in 2024. They smell blood in the water—Biden’s and Democrats’—and they are happy to delay their holiday to go for the jugular as the Democratic-controlled Senate puts Israel and Ukraine first, over their American voting base.
As People’s Action Executive Director Sulma Arias pointed out: “President Biden won in 2020 by campaigning against Trump’s racist immigration and asylum policies.”
Now, said Arias, “It is unconscionable for Majority Leader Schumer and the Biden Administration to even consider trading necessary protections for refugees and asylum seekers for foreign military aid.
“Democrats should not give in to Republican demands for more suffering for migrants. These callous and dangerous negotiating tactics that will harm many people are exactly the wrong direction for this country, and we will remember this moment in November,” he added.
Arias is right. The base that swept Team Biden into office in 2020 has lost all faith in the administration and that will undoubtedly be reflected in November 2024. Democrats and Biden, along with his overtly arrogant mouthpiece, would do well to take warning now.
Will the Ukrainians, Taiwanese, and Israelis vote for Biden and save him, instead of the base of immigrant, youth, and Black voters who have consistently helped Democrats win again and again? I think not!
The writer is publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the Black Immigrant Daily News.