As we’ve reached the last week of October, think back to a year ago when America entered the home stretch of the fateful 2020 campaign.
Recall that it was nervous time for everyone, both Democrats and Republicans the same. The third presidential debate was held on October 22, (which really was the second debate since President Donald Trump wisely opted out of a “virtual” forum that the media insisted was necessary due to his recent recovery from COVID-19) resulting in a clear Trump victory, primarily because the incumbent’s presentation -- and behavior -- was much improved from his September disaster.
Unfortunately for conservatives and Republicans, Democrat challenger Joe Biden didn’t completely embarrass himself at Belmont University (the site of the third scheduled political face to face), effectively dodging and weaving around any kind of substantive challenge to himself or son Hunter while Trump concentrated on his administration’s accomplishments and competence to make his case for another four years.
There was great hope, right? Polls continued to show Biden with a popular vote lead beyond the margin of error and the Electoral College total figured to be close once again. Republicans, myself included, saw signs of a 2016 repeat when Trump gained ground near the end and the Election Day vote would put him over the top. The problem in 2020 was that 100 million people had already voted early or by mail before November 3rd. The knee-jerk decision on behalf of many states to offer generous no excuse early and absentee mail-in balloting basically meant that the third presidential debate was anticlimactic and meaningless.
Election Day vote counting chicanery in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania threw everything into doubt. The rest is history, so to speak, and barring some miracle of contrition and honesty from Democrats, Joe Biden will remain president until he’s either defeated in the next election or deposed in favor of Kamala Harris.
What has changed markedly since a year ago is America’s view of Biden himself. Conservatives always recognized that the longtime Delaware senator and Barack Obama’s veep was a cognitive and truth challenged idiot, but apparently it took longer for the rest of the country to catch on to the blatant snow-job by the liberal party and the media. Polls now show senile Joe’s continuing to turn off the voters. If only we could go back in time, right?
“A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Joe Biden's approval numbers continuing to slip through his first year in office, stuck in the upper 30s.
“Respondents gave Biden a negative 37% job approval rating, with 52% disapproving and 12% not offering an opinion. That's down a single percentage point from his 38% to 53% approval rating on Oct. 6. Additionally, 38% said they hold an overall ‘favorable opinion’ of Biden, down significantly from May, when he was still fresh in office, with 49% rating him favorably.
“Biden's numbers may be sinking like a ship, but members of Congress are faring even worse. Per the Quinnipiac poll, respondents gave congressional Democrats a negative 30% approval rating to 60% disapproval. For congressional Republicans, it was 23% to 65%.”
One surmises that Biden’s ratings won’t get much better -- or worse -- from here on out. Fearing the alternative, there’s no way that Democrat survey respondents would completely abandon senile Joe. Therefore, his floor is somewhat higher than was George W. Bush’s. When Bush went soft on immigration and began acting little better than a Democrat in the latter half of his second term, a lot of former supporters had had enough. When W left office, there wasn’t much grief on either side of the spectrum.
Today, the higher level of disapproval for congressional Republicans is due to conservatives expressing dissatisfaction with wishy-washy Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Kentuckian put his foot in his mouth again last week when he said it was time to move past the 2020 election to solely concentrate on Biden and the bumbling Democrats. As has been argued a great deal in this space, the audits and investigations into 2020 need to continue, even if it may be time to switch the emphasis to the next campaign rather than looking back in perpetuity.
While most Democrats would approve of party members in Congress no matter what they did or didn’t do, conservatives actually pay attention to what’s going on with their GOP leadership and won’t automatically rubber stamp the party brand. That’s why Democrats are “only” minus-30 -- and Republicans are minus-42.
If you broke the congressional Republican number down between establishmentarians like McConnell, Liz Cheney, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney versus conservatives like Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Rand Paul and Louie Gohmert, the conservative approval number would be much, much higher. Therein lies the difference.
The same logic carries over to senile Joe Biden’s dismal but stable rating. Democrats still love him while everyone else in America, Republicans and Independents alike, see the gross incompetence in the Democrat’s every move. Close observers of last year’s campaign understood that Biden’s only platform and reason for being was because he was not Trump, and now that he’s president, simply undoing whatever Trump accomplished isn’t bringing him good results. Plus, his town hall meeting was an absolute disaster.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 is still a political drag, but Democrats who would tend to favor Biden anyway must think he’s doing a great job of “keeping people safe”. These are the folks who approve of vaccine and mask mandates as well as the political class’s fear promotion and their threatening police forces, teachers or state employees with automatic termination if their members disobey. This hypocritical stance only figures to get worse as the weeks and months go by. More people have died from COVID during Joe Biden’s tenure than perished in Trump’s final year. Sooner or later Americans will recognize that there’s only so much the government can do to prevent infection.
It’s a myth that COVID is dangerous and life threatening to everyone. And it’s true that people who’ve already recovered from the virus likely have greater immunity than they would with the vaccine. But leftists don’t listen to or care about logic. They want mind control.
A recent trip to the mall revealed today’s mindset. While about half of the patrons at this particular collection of stores were African-American and the other half white or Hispanic, the breakdown of mask wearers was heavily slanted towards the black folks. I didn’t bother taking a scientific sample, but the difference in face covering participation was noticeable based on race alone.
Does it matter? It may indicate that African-Americans as a group are more afraid of getting sick than the white population, yet statistically speaking, black citizens are less inclined to get vaccinated. Therefore, how will they react to vaccine mandates? Black professional athletes are beginning to accept the vaccine, but almost all of them, including LeBron James and Cam Newton, say it’s a personal choice.
I sense a shift in attitudes taking place, with conservative African-American men becoming “woke” to the broken promises and pandering of Joe Biden and the Democrats in general. Liberal black groups are also upset with Biden. For all we know, Joe Biden’s approval ratings might be even lower than surveys suggest it is, because this slow migration towards the GOP may not register in poll formulas and voter enthusiasm tallies. Some black voters may not have fully adopted the Republican Party yet, but they might not show up at Election time for the pandering Democrats, either.
The same goes for Hispanic voters, who are worried about the economy and jobs. The absolute disaster at the southern border has caused Hispanic-majority areas in Texas to turn red. If the trend continues, numerous states with large Hispanic populations might not be as guaranteed for Democrats as they once were. Illegal immigrants may still side with Democrats -- but liberals are in danger of losing measurable blocs of support.
Here in Virginia, one week ahead of the Commonwealth’s all-important off-year election, momentum appears to have swung towards Republican Glenn Youngkin (over truly heinous Democrat Terry McAuliffe). Polls show a very close if not tied race. Some pollsters see Youngkin ahead. A subjective survey of yard signs shows a heavy advantage for the Republicans. The enthusiasm gap should be a factor.
(Note: In last year’s election, there were a lot of Biden signs around the area, but I’ve seen very few McAuliffe signs this year.)
Experts say Joe Biden’s unpopularity is weighing down McAuliffe in Virginia. How could it not? Democrats are pulling out all the stops to motivate their core constituencies to turn out, including having Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and Barack Obama make appearances. President Joe is just over the river from heavily Democratic northern Virginia, and he’s decided to come down, too.
Much has changed since a year ago. Not only do we have senile Joe Biden in the White House, political problems are cropping up everywhere. Democrats can’t look to the president or Congress to improve their prospects ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Virginia will tell us how bad it might be for the liberals. Here’s thinking it’ll be pretty ugly, indeed.
Virginia Elections
2022 midterms
2020 Election
voter integrity
mask mandates
vaccine mandates
Joe Biden popularity
Congress approval rate
Glenn Youngkin
Terry McAuliffe