This is a scathing article from of all places the AP which is hardly
right wing.
Even Biden's supporters are reaching the end of their patience with him.
"Biden backers ‘not seeing the results’ a year into his term"
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https://apnews.com/article/climate-voting-rights-joe-biden-business-
voting-04901c8ab44af4db019d590fa7524d86>
"NEW YORK (AP) — Just over a year ago, millions of energized young
people, women, voters of color and independents joined forces to send Joe
Biden to the White House. But 12 months into his presidency, many
describe a coalition in crisis.
Leading voices across Biden’s diverse political base openly decry the
slow pace of progress on key campaign promises. The frustration was
especially pronounced this past week after Biden’s push for voting rights
legislation effectively stalled, intensifying concerns in his party that
fundamental democratic principles are at risk and reinforcing a broader
sense that the president is faltering at a moment of historic
consequence.
“People are feeling like they’re getting less than they bargained for
when they put Biden in office. There’s a lot of emotions, and none of
them are good,” said Quentin Wathum-Ocama, president of the Young
Democrats of America. “I don’t know if the right word is ‘apoplectic’ or
‘demoralized.’ We’re down. We’re not seeing the results.”
The strength of Biden’s support will determine whether Democrats maintain
threadbare majorities in Congress beyond this year or whether they will
cede lawmaking authority to a Republican Party largely controlled by
former President Donald Trump. Already, Republicans in several state
legislatures have taken advantage of Democratic divisions in Washington
to enact far-reaching changes to state election laws, abortion rights and
public health measures in line with Trump’s wishes.
CLIMATE
Biden backers 'not seeing the results' a year into his term
Governors turn to budgets to guard against climate change
Romania pushes to add climate change education in schools
On Jewish Earth Day, more Jewish groups take climate action
If Biden cannot unify his party and reinvigorate his political coalition,
the GOP at the state and federal levels will almost certainly grow more
emboldened, and the red wave that shaped a handful of state elections
last year could fundamentally shift the balance of power across America
in November’s midterm elections.
For now, virtually none of the groups that fueled Biden’s 2020 victory
are happy.
Young people are frustrated that he hasn’t followed through on vows to
combat climate change and student debt. Women are worried that his plans
to expand family leave, child care and universal pre-K are stalled as
abortion rights erode and schools struggle to stay open. Moderates in
both parties who once cheered Biden’s centrist approach worry that he’s
moved too far left. And voters of color, like those across Biden’s
political base, are furious that he hasn’t done more to protect their
voting rights.
“We mobilized to elect President Biden because he made promises to us,”
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., told The Associated Press, citing Biden’s pledge
to address police violence, student loan debt, climate change and voter
suppression, among other issues.
“We need transformative change — our very lives depend on it,” Bush said.
“And because we haven’t seen those results yet, we’re frustrated —
frustrated that despite everything we did to deliver a Democratic White
House, Senate and House of Representatives, our needs and our lives are
still not being treated as a top priority. That needs to change.”
Facing widespread frustration, the White House insists Biden is making
significant progress, especially given the circumstances when he took
office.
“President Biden entered office with enormous challenges — a once-in-a-
generation pandemic, economic crisis and a hollowed-out federal
government. In the first year alone, he has delivered progress on his
promises,” said Cedric Richmond, a senior adviser to the president. He
pointed to more than 6 million new jobs, 200 million vaccinated
Americans, the most diverse Cabinet in U.S. history and the most federal
judges confirmed in a president’s first year since Richard Nixon.
Richmond also highlighted historic legislative accomplishments Biden
signed into law — specifically, a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that
sent $1,400 checks to most Americans and a subsequent $1 trillion
infrastructure package that will fund public works projects across every
state in the nation for several years.
In an interview, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a leading voice in the
Democratic Party’s left wing, described Biden’s pandemic relief package
as among the most significant pieces of legislation ever enacted to help
working people.
“But a lot more work needs to be done,” he said.
Like other Biden allies, Sanders directed blame for the president’s woes
at two Senate Democrats: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema
of Arizona. They are blocking the president’s plan to protect voting
rights by refusing to bypass the filibuster, having already derailed
Biden’s “Build Back Better” package, which calls for investments
exceeding $2 trillion for child care, paid family leave, education and
climate change, among other progressive priorities.
“It has been a mistake to have backroom conversations with Manchin and
Sinema for the last four months, or five months,” Sanders said. “Those
conversations have gotten nowhere. But what they have done is demoralize
tens of millions of Americans.”
But blaming fellow Democrats will do little to improve Biden’s political
standing.
According to Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
polling released last month, the president’s approval ratings have been
falling among virtually every demographic as the pandemic continues to
rage, inflation soars and the majority of his campaign promises go
unfulfilled. A series of legal setbacks in recent days stand to make
things worse. The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Biden’s vaccine and
testing requirements for big businesses.
About 7 in 10 Black Americans said they approved of Biden in December,
compared with roughly 9 in 10 in April. Among Hispanics, support dipped
to roughly half from about 7 in 10.
Just half of women approved of Biden last month compared to roughly two-
thirds in the spring.
There was a similar drop among younger voters: Roughly half of Americans
under 45 approved of the president, down from roughly two-thirds earlier
in the year. The decline was similar among those age 45 and older. And
among independents, a group that swung decidedly for Biden in 2020, just
40% of those who don’t lean toward a party approved of Biden in December,
down from 63% in April.
“Biden is failing us,” said John Paul Mejia, the 19-year-old spokesman
for the Sunrise Movement, a national youth organization focused on
climate change. “If Biden doesn’t use the time he has left with a
Democratic majority in Congress to fight tooth and nail for the promises
that he was elected on, he will go down in history as a could-have-been
president and ultimately a coward who didn’t stand up for democracy and a
habitable planet.”
Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women, said
she wants to see more urgency from Biden in protecting women’s
priorities.
“In these times, we need somebody who’s going to be a fighter,” she said.
Nunes called on Biden to work harder to protect voting rights and access
to abortion, which have been dramatically curtailed in several
Republican-led states. A looming Supreme Court decision expected this
summer could weaken, or wipe away, the landmark Roe v. Wade precedent
that made abortion legal.
“We are in a really dire time right now. We’re seeing so many laws passed
that are really challenging peoples’ constitutional rights,” Nunes said.
“We need someone who’s going to say we’re not going to tolerate this.”
Charlie Sykes, an anti-Trump Republican who backed Biden in 2020, said
the president is also in danger of losing moderate voters in both parties
unless he can shift his party’s rhetoric more to the middle when talking
about public safety, crime and voting.
“He ran as very much a centrist, center-left candidate, but I think that
a lot of moderate swing voters are feeling a little bit left out and
wondering where the Joe Biden of 2020 went,” Sykes said.
Having only been in office for a year, Biden may have time to turn things
around before the November midterms — especially as Trump reemerges as a
more visible player in national politics. In recent years, nothing has
unified Democrats more than Trump himself.
Mary Kay Henry, president of the two-million-member Service Employees
International Union, said her members want more from Washington, but they
would be out in full force this year to remind voters of the work Biden
has already done to address concerns about the pandemic and economic
security.
“President Biden is not the obstacle,” Henry said, pointing to the
“intransigent Republican caucus in the Senate” who have unified against
Biden’s Build Back Better package and his plan to protect voting rights.
“We’re going to have this president’s back.”
Not everyone is as willing to commit to the Democratic president.
“We need to see Joe Biden the fighter. That’s kind of where I’m at,” said
Wathum-Ocama, the Young Democrats of America president. “The unifier is
appropriate at times. But we need somebody who’s going to fight for our
issues if we’re going to come out and turn out for him in ’22.”
___
Associated Press polling specialist Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this
report."