Joe Biden’s Ghost Haunts Democrats

Former President Joe Biden’s ghost is still haunting the Democratic Party, and though he may have ridden off into the sunsets at Rehoboth Beach, his legacy in the White House, one stained by a botched retreat from Afghanistan, censorship, and inflation, has also stained his party’s reputation — so much so that they are facing an unprecedentedly bad approval rating.

A devastating CNN poll found that the Democratic Party’s approval rating has plummeted to a historic low, clocking in at a paltry 29%. Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration in January, the approval rating has dropped a stunning 20 points. It’s the party’s worst approval rating ever measured by the CNN polling, which dates back to 1992. (Subscribe to MR. RIGHT, a weekly newsletter about modern masculinity)

So what gives? It might have to do with the party’s slapdash messaging from the first joint address to Congress. Or maybe Americans like Elon Musk and Tesla aren’t interested in a party whose radical members firebomb dealerships and charging stations.

But amid their identity crisis and poor approval ratings, one of the biggest reasons Democrats have struggled to gain their footing in the second Trump era is, simply, Joe Biden.

At the end of the day, Biden’s presidency was just a temporary band-aid on the internal strife that had been brewing since Donald Trump’s first victory in 2016. We’re now seeing it play out, with Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all but calling for Chuck Schumer to be cast out from his leadership position. But back in 2019 and 2020, despite the wide ideological gap between young Democrats and old, the party tried to paper over it by backing the boring, ‘normal’, tried-and-true Biden. Using the pandemic to fuel chaos and attack Trump, they then smartly appealed to Americans who craved a ‘return to normal.’ And what’s more normal in American politics than a life-long career senator who represents the swampy, neoliberal interests of Washington, D.C.? (RELATED: ‘Outrage And Betrayal’: Democrats’ Civil War Just Got Worse)

His time in office was anything but normal. It was abnormal in the sense that none of what Biden did was normal. Even though he ran as a moderate centrist, who governed like a wannabe FDR who cared more about nuking conservative grandmas off Facebook than tamping down runaway inflation. And that he was cognitively challenged and mentally absent for what was likely his entire term. The party that told Americans he was the opposite, as chipper and sharp as they come, kept repeating the lie until July of 2024 when the narrative came crashing down and Biden was ultimately replaced by Kamala Harris.

Americans don’t forget such naked mendacity so easily. You can’t prop up a senile old man for the entire duration of his presidency, lie about it, gaslight until the cows come home, and then expect your party’s approval rating to come remotely close to 50% anytime soon after. Americans haven’t also forgotten the Biden family influence-peddling schemes, the accusations of corruption, or the egregious, last-minute pardon of Hunter. And guess what? They lied about the pardon, too.

The party is not doomed forever to be haunted by Biden’s ghost. But for the time being, Biden’s legacy lurks in the background and still permeates everything Democrats say or do. Until a new face emerges with a new agenda and outlook, and disavows the Biden era, the Biden era will continue to have its way.

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