In the year since US President Biden took office, his approval rating has been declining, making him a "weak president" ahead of schedule.
Biden's transformation into "weak" has the interaction of various factors, which to a considerable extent reflects some normalized shortcomings in the fields of bipartisan politics and social governance in the United States.
On January 20, 2021, Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States with the largest number of votes in U.S. history. But in the year since he was in power, Biden has failed to come up with a tough report card.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 to mark the first anniversary of the Capitol Hill riots. Xinhua News Agency (Pool Photo/Photo by Michael Reynolds)
The results of a recent poll released by the University of Quinnipiac in the United States showed that Biden's approval rating was only 33%, setting a new low, which made him one of the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history. Another poll shows that if biden's first anniversary report card is scored, a large number of American voters give Biden a C, D or F, that is, "moderate to fail".
Over the past year, Biden has suffered far more setbacks than progress. The more severe COVID-19 pandemic and more polarized partisan politics, the headache-inducing supply chain crisis and the highest inflation rate in 40 years, the rising tide of violent crime and illegal immigration in cities, and the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan have all made Biden's first year in office unsatisfactory. On the first anniversary of his administration, whether it is public approval, public image shaping, anti-epidemic performance, legislative agenda, foreign policy or governing prospects, Biden seems to have become a "weak president" ahead of schedule.
Both goals fell short
Over the past year, Biden's two main campaign goals, the fight against the epidemic and unity, have both failed.
At the beginning of Biden's rise to power, the approval rating exceeded half, and at one point it was close to 60%. When he was in power for 100 days, he basically fulfilled his campaign promises such as widespread vaccination and large-scale reopening of schools, and the epidemic in the United States once fell significantly. But first the Delta strain brought a new wave of the epidemic, and then the Olmiqueron strain swept through the United States, shattering the idea that the United States would rely on vaccines to get out of the epidemic.
Faced with the Ultra-Kerong strain, which has a super-spreading power and breaks through the vaccine defense wall, the Biden team made the same mistake as the Trump administration at the beginning of the outbreak - not preparing in advance and in time, resulting in a serious shortage of virus detection supplies and high-quality masks, and wasting time. At present, the severity of the epidemic in the United States is far greater than at any point in the past two years, the number of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths continues to rise, and hospitals in many places are overloaded. "USA Today" quoted some research teams as reporting on the 18th that before the number of new deaths peaked in mid-March, it was predicted that another 50,000 to 300,000 Americans would die of the new crown, which means that the total number of deaths caused by the new crown in the United States will exceed 1 million in the early spring of this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden leaves after speaking at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Xinhua News Agency (Pool Photo/Photo by Greg Nash)
In terms of "uniting the United States", Biden also lacked achievements. Over the past year, the two parties in the United States have become more antagonistic, the legislative stalemate in Congress has become more difficult to break the ice, and the social divisions and the people's distrust of the government and the media have deepened. In response to last year's Capitol Hill riots, Congressional Democrats made a fuss about setting up an investigative committee to call a large number of witnesses, but polls show that a majority of voters believe the Congressional investigation has a one-sided partisan political color. On the first anniversary of Biden's administration, only 54% of voters recognized the legitimacy of Biden's administration, which is rare in the history of the US election, indicating that the House democrat-led Capitol Hill riot investigation, no matter how many former Trump supporters are summoned, the final report can only achieve the effect of consolidating the Democratic vote base at most, and cannot shake the position of Republican voters. Many independent voters, and even some Democrats, believe that the Democratic Party is too much about the Riots on Capitol Hill, repeatedly rendering the "democratic political crisis", emphasizing the "ideological struggle" with the Republican Party, in addition to deepening the antagonism between voters of the two parties, may also lose the real focus of the midterm elections - the economy and people's livelihood.
When Biden campaigned and took office, he made "uniting the United States" as his main commitment, which originally had its confidence. He has a wealth of political experience, not only with Obama as vice president of the United States for eight years, but also for 36 years of re-election to congress, with deep political connections and a reputation for cross-party cooperation. But the actual results are there for all to see: efforts to remove obstruction of the rules of procedure hit a wall; there is little hope of passing the voting rights bill; and the "Rebuild a Better World" bill will be difficult to break unless it makes major concessions.
The point is that around these legislative goals, the Biden administration failed to achieve internal unity among Senate Democrats in the first place. The Democratic Party itself is a "big tent party" with many interest groups within the party and a higher degree of voter diversity, and in the past year since Biden came to power, the divisions within the Democratic Party have also widened, and biden has left and right between the moderate and left of the Democratic Party on many issues such as student loans and climate change. The Wall Street Journal commented that Biden still had the potential to push for bipartisan cooperation in Congress, but his first year in office disagreements made the prospect "more difficult."
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 to mark the first anniversary of the Capitol Hill riots. Xinhua News Agency (Pool Photo/Photo by Greg Nash)
Economic diplomacy failed
In the economic field, the Biden administration is not without bright spots. Within a year, the White House, after compromises and concessions, brokered two important pieces of legislation, the $1.9 trillion economic bailout program and the about $1 trillion infrastructure investment bill. Over the past year, wages have generally risen in the United States, new companies have emerged in large numbers, and poverty levels have decreased.
However, the supply chain crisis and the high inflation rate have become two major "failures", almost drowning out the Biden administration's achievements in the economic and people's livelihood fields. Communicating with the media and delivering effective messages directly to voters is Biden's weakness, dwarfed by his two predecessors. A classic example is that almost no one cares about the record low unemployment rate, and the labor shortage has always been a hot topic.
In the diplomatic realm, Biden has also failed to portray himself as a "strong leader." Although the international image of the United States in the transnational national polls has risen sharply since Biden took office, at the end of August last year, the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in a state of chaos, and the Taliban regained state power in a state of devastation, and the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal was almost unanimously considered a serious failure. The posture of the United States to end the war in Afghanistan is so awkward, not only damaging the image of the United States, weakening the trust of allies, but also making Biden's leadership ability widely questionable, becoming one of the turning points in Biden's public approval.
Immediately after taking office, Biden announced to the international community that the United States is "back", followed by a return to the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, re-repairing relations with allies, re-emphasizing multilateralism and global cooperation, and trying to show the opposite posture of the Trump era, which emphasized "America First". However, in specific diplomatic practice, the words and deeds of the Biden administration are often contradictory, and although there are adjustments, they have actually inherited and developed the line of the Trump era at many levels. A typical example is to accelerate the implementation of the Indo-Pacific strategy, promote the us-Japan-India-Australia quadrilateral security dialogue and establish a trilateral security partnership between the United States, Britain, and Australia. But the construction of nuclear submarines by the United States and Britain in Australia has led the Australian side to unilaterally tear up the tens of billions of dollars of submarine orders it signed with France. America's "self-interest" provoked the wrath of France and created a new rift in the U.S.-ally relationship.
Overall, in the past year, the Biden administration has lacked highlights in the diplomatic field, the old bottle has not been filled with new wine, and the rhetoric of supporting "multilateral dialogue" and "cooperation between major powers in global affairs" has often deviated from actual operation. Many analysts in the United States also accused Biden of not being tough enough on Russia-US relations, the situation in Ukraine, and the Iranian nuclear issue, showing weakness to Putin.
This is the White House after a snow shoot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Aaron)
Reflect the problem of normalization in the United States
Behind Biden's shift to "weakness", there is the interaction of various factors, which to a considerable extent reflects the shortcomings of normalization in the fields of American politics and governance.
One of the drawbacks: The polarization of bipartisan politics in the United States will continue for a long time and will be difficult to change in the short term. An important reason why the Biden administration has not been able to come up with a tough report card is that it is deeply mired in the unprecedented polarization of bipartisan politics. Biden's weakness in advancing the legislative agenda comes first of all from the Democratic Party's "weakest majority" status in both houses of Congress, especially the Senate Democratic Party and the Republican Party occupy 50 seats each, which makes Biden's political room for maneuver particularly small, as long as a Democratic senator opposes, his legislative agenda can not be advanced. This is a unique dilemma facing Biden, reflecting a new high point of political division in the United States.
The second disadvantage is that partisan politics penetrates into other areas and deepens social divisions. In the past year, both the House Democrat-led investigation into the Capitol Hill riots and the White House's vaccine injunction have been reduced to tools of bipartisan political struggle for the first time. Even the Senate vote on biden-nominated federal judges, and the phenomenon of partisan voting is far more serious than in the past. Crises such as COVID-19, which in the past may have been an opportunity to promote national unity, continue to be a breeding ground for conspiracy theories in an era of political polarization.
Polls show that American voters are more ideologically divided than ever before, making it less likely that they will swing between the two parties. In one poll, about half of Republican voters even believed that Democrats posed a greater threat to the American way of life than Russia. The U.S. Supreme Court will also rule this year on abortion and gun rights lawsuits, two long-term topics that have torn Apart American society.
The third drawback: many long-term social governance problems in the United States have become more prominent under the epidemic, and the epidemic has aggravated the governance problems. From racial discrimination to urban crime to the divide between the rich and the poor, the Biden administration is struggling to cope. Biden's performance is flawed, but according to some US media, these long-accumulated problems "may be beyond the ability of any president."
From the past year, Biden has replaced Trump in the White House, failing the world to see the image of the United States improve. This year is the year of the US midterm elections, and experts generally believe that the Republican Party has a high probability of regaining the majority of the National Assembly in the midterm elections, which means that Biden will be in a more "weak" position in the second half of his term.
Of course, nothing is set in stone, Biden has 3 years left in his term, and while it will be more difficult than his first year in office, he still has room to reverse weakness. The pandemic has driven and accelerated political and social change in the United States and the world, and Biden's tenure in office in the midst of multiple crises, even if only four years, will leave its mark on this unique period of change. (Source: Reporter: Xu Jianmei; Editors: Sun Ping, Wang Shen, Cheng Dayu)