Overseas network deep at one point: satisfaction fell to 25%, the White House this year is very "chaotic"

Source: Overseas Network

On January 19, local time, US President Joe Biden delivered a speech on the first anniversary of his inauguration at the White House. (Image source: AFP)

The Biden administration, which runs the White House under the cloud of "Occupy Capitol Hill," will celebrate its first anniversary on January 20, local time, in the shadow of the Omicron strain and inflation. However, compared with the spirit when it first took office, the Biden administration, which was "beaten" by the reality of Washington for a year, is now faltering. In a report titled "Biden: The First Year," CBS noted that no matter which way you look at it, "the first year of the Biden administration was chaotic."

People's trust in the government has declined

Before January 20, the White House had to face a series of not-so-good news: statistics released by the comprehensive polling website "538" on January 17 showed that biden's average approval rating in 363 days in office was 42.5%, only higher than his predecessor Trump, the second-lowest since World War II; on January 16, a joint poll published by CBS and pollster YouGov showed that only 25 percent of respondents were satisfied with the work of the Biden administration, and 50 percent. of respondents found the Biden administration's work frustrating.

At the end of the year in office, most of the American people believe that the White House's concerns are misplaced: more than 2/3 of the American people think that the White House does not pay enough attention to inflation, 58% of the people think that the Biden administration is "not concerned" about economic issues; 67% of the respondents said that they "don't care" or "don't care much" about issues such as voting rights and infrastructure that the White House and the Democratic Party are concerned about; 62% of the respondents do not approve of the Way the White House manages the economy, and as many as 70% of the respondents believe that the White House has failed to effectively control inflation. Of those who did not support Biden, as many as 76 percent said they would not change their attitude toward the administration even if Biden's Rebuilding a Better Future Act was passed.

At the same time, under the continuous impact of the epidemic and inflation, the trust of the American people in public institutions such as the US government, the media, and enterprises has continued to decline. On January 19, the American Edelman International Public Relations Company released the annual "Edelman Trust Barometer", and the U.S. Trust Composite Index fell by 5 percentage points from 2020 to 43%, of which the Trust of the American people in the government fell by 3% to 39%. New York Times columnist Jamil Bouy said in an interview with CBS that the ongoing outbreak and the continued devastation of American society "means biden can't say it's a year of triumph."

There is no way to break down partisan barriers

On January 13, the Biden administration was hit by a double "crit" from Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court: Democratic Senator Christen Sinama expressed opposition to changing the Senate's "obstructionist" procedure, and the Supreme Court rejected the White House's mandatory vaccination order against large corporations , a day described by the Guardian as "the worst day since Biden took office so far." The Biden administration's setbacks on Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court are also a microcosm of the Biden administration's difficulties in domestic affairs during the year.

The epidemic that has been raging in the United States for nearly two years still has no easing trend, and Biden's "America is on the verge of defeating the new crown epidemic" in July 2021 has long been replaced by "the United States has fallen into the abyss of the new crown epidemic". According to data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, on January 10, the number of new confirmed cases of new coronavirus in the United States exceeded 1 million again, reaching 1.364 million. According to the Statistics of the New York Times, on January 14, the number of hospitalizations due to the new crown in the United States approached 160,000, a new high since the epidemic. What is even more disturbing is the continuous repetition and change of the US government's epidemic prevention policy. In the past year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has "repeatedly jumped" several times over the need to wear masks in crowded public places; on December 27, 2021, CDC officials announced that the quarantine period for people infected with the new coronavirus will be shortened from 10 days to 5 days, citing the milder symptoms caused by the Omiljung strain, and the CDC hopes to "continue to keep society functioning safely while following science."

The Failure of the White House to respond to the epidemic is only the "tip of the iceberg" of the US government's difficulty in solving domestic problems from a systematic and institutional perspective. In a commentary titled "Biden's Year of Bitter Lessons," Washington Post review columnist Karen Tumarty wrote that "during his presidential campaign and in the weeks leading up to office, Biden was confident that he could become a 'dealer' in the political undercurrent of the Senate he served for 36 years," and that "however, of his major successes over the past year, only the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed in November 2021 was passed with bipartisan support." The White House's inability to break down partisan barriers, or even the dilemma of unity within the Democratic Party, has intensified the political polarization and ideological confrontation in the United States, which has not only plunged the United States' anti-epidemic work into chaos, but also brought to a standstill a series of issues related to the fundamental development of the country, including voting rights, infrastructure construction, and social reform. New York Times columnist Ezela Klein wrote relentlessly: "This administration is not working as planned. ”

"America is back" became empty

Domestic issues are struggling, and the Biden administration has not won much praise on foreign affairs. In August 2021, the Biden administration ushered in its own "Saigon Moment" in Afghanistan, and the footage of the US helicopter leaving in a panic from the US Embassy in Kabul almost perfectly reproduced the scene of the US military fleeing Saigon more than 50 years ago, making the US withdrawal from Afghanistan a "shameful failure of the US leadership". The defeat of the United States in Afghanistan has also made the international community, including in Europe, more suspicious of the validity of the "promise" that Biden preached at the beginning of his inauguration that "America is back." In an August 23, 2021 article titled "Afghanistan's Defeat Tests the U.S.-Eu Alliance," the New York Times noted that Afghanistan's chicken feathers have made many Europeans more convinced than ever that they cannot rely on the United States to take care of their security interests — no matter who dominates the White House.

In fact, more and more people see the Biden administration's foreign policy as "Trump Version 2.0." The White House's so-called foreign policy of "basing itself on the interests of the American middle class and working class" has long been interpreted as a "America First" version of Biden, and its "buy American goods" policy has been accused of a naked trade protection policy; although the Biden administration announced on its first day in office to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and announced its return to international organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNESCO, the United States has used these multilateral institutions and international agreements to pursue its own politics. The purpose of geopolitical and economic interests has not changed in any way; from the US-EU summit to the so-called "democracy summit", in the past year, the United States has engaged in ideological diplomacy and "small circle" diplomacy, which has intensified geopolitical confrontation and, to a certain extent, damaged international cooperation in responding to the epidemic, climate change, supply chain stability and other issues.

While shouting "a return to multilateralism," the United States continues to stab its allies. On September 15, 2021, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia abruptly announced the establishment of a trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS" and announced that the United States and the United Kingdom would help Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. At the same time, Australia announced that it had torn up the contract previously signed with France to build conventional submarines, triggering diplomatic disputes between France and the United States and Australia, and for the first time in French history, it announced the recall of its ambassador to the United States. French Foreign Minister Le Dreyon said in an interview with French news radio on September 16: "This is a real stab in the back", "I am very angry today, and painful ... This is not what allies should do with each other. (Text/Oldness)

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