Four More Years! The Case For Joe Biden

President Biden announced for a second term late last month. Many people forget that Biden inherited a nation in crisis. Democracy was facing its biggest threat since 1861, we had an out of control pandemic and the economy lost 140,000 jobs in December 2020.

History teaches us that Biden is in a good position to win a second term. Currently, his approval ratings are in the mid 40s. (A recent result from the GOP friendly Rasmussen poll showed a 51% approval rating.) That’s similar to where Clinton and Obama stood early in their third year. Reagan was at 35% approval in early 1983.

Republicans and the “liberal” mainstream media like to point to polls that allegedly show many Americans don’t want President Biden to run for re-election. However, poll questions asking if Americans “want” a particular presidential matchup or even whether partisans “want” one of their own leaders to run just don’t tell you much about future elections. What really matters is the real choice voters have to make in November 2024.

Despite the apparent reluctance of many Democrats to see Biden run for another term, an April 21 Associated Press poll found that 78% of Democrats say they approve of the job he’s doing as president. And a total of 81% of Democrats say they would at least probably support Biden in a general election if he is the nominee — 41% say they definitely would and 40% say they probably would.

“But it’s worth noting that even though some major Democratic-leaning groups don’t want Biden to run, they’ll support him if he does. For example, an almost-unanimous 96% of Sanders/Warren voters say they’d vote for Biden in the general election if he’s the Democratic nominee.” NBC News poll April 24, 2023.

This is why the D.C. pundit class and the Republicans talking about so-called “tepid” support for Biden is foolish. The election is a binary choice — it’s not Biden versus the perfect candidate (which Donald Trump is decidedly not, and nor is Ron DeSantis). The Republicans won’t be nominating the equivalent of Eisenhower-Reagan. Biden has correctly asked the voters to compare him to the alternative and not the almighty.

History also tells us that most presidents’ approval ratings rise the closer they got to the election. Once the voters were able to compare them to the actual alternative, their popularity increased. Like I said, the GOP will be nominating Trump or another outside of the mainstream MAGA Republican. The GOP base wants an extremist.

The “liberal” media and the GOP seldom mentions that the MAGA Republicans lost elections in the battleground states in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022. MAGA simply doesn’t play well outside of the right wing bubble in the red states. MAGA is toxic for most voters outside of the GOP base.

A Reuters poll from late April certainly verifies that Biden is the favorite in 2024. This recent poll shows Biden leading Trump and DeSantis by wide margins. Biden leads Trump 43% to 38% and leads DeSantis by a 43% to 34% margin.

A May 16 Reuters verified that Biden continues to lead Trump — this time by a 44% to 38% margin. This same poll found that 63% of voters said they were less likely to support a presidential candidate who backs severe restrictions on abortion.

Republicans have already created a helpful contrast for Biden by initiating a phony default crisis “that will cast them as the cause of America’s economic troubles. Worse for them, the troubles are fast receding. Inflation is vexing, but the recession that Republicans hoped for did not materialize: Instead, Joe Biden has presided over the fastest and steepest unemployment reduction in U.S. economic history.

The big new Republican idea to halt the flow of drugs is to bomb or invade Mexico. Instead of reassuring women, Republican state legislators and Republican judges are signaling that they will support a national abortion ban if their party wins in 2024 — and are already building the apparatus of surveillance and control necessary to make such a ban effective. Republican state-level voter-suppression schemes have been noisy and alarming when the GOP plan called for them to be subtle and technical.

It’s early in the election cycle, of course, but not too early to wonder: Are we watching a Republican electoral disaster in the making?” David Frum.

The extremism of the GOP will further highlight the fact that Biden is running on a record of significant accomplishment. He has the best legislative record since Lyndon Johnson between 1964–66.

Biden’s most significant accomplishments are as follows:

• GDP growth over 3%, 3 times what it was under Trump
• 12.7 million new jobs
• Unemployment has been reduced from 6.4% to 3.4%.
• Unemployment has been below 4% for 14 straight months.
• Lowest African-American unemployment rate in U.S. history.
• Lowest unemployment rate since 1969 and the lowest peacetime unemployment rate.
• 6 times as many Biden jobs as the last 3 GOP Presidents combined
• 800,000 new manufacturing jobs
• Best COVID recovery in G7
• Lowest poverty/uninsured rates ever
• Record new business starts
• 2 job openings per unemployed person, a record
• The deficit went up every year under Trump and has come down every year under Biden
• Domestic oil production is on track to set records in 2023
• Historic investments in our future prosperity (infrastructure, CHIPs, climate, health care)

The Republicans and the mainstream press will continue to complain about inflation. What they won’t tell you is that mainstream economists from both parties found that the American Rescue Act added only 1 to 3 percentage points to the underlying rate of inflation in 2021–22. However, that landmark law isn’t causing inflation in 2023. That’s because the last stimulus payments were sent out over two years ago. The money was spent a long, long time ago.

We are better off as a country under Biden’s leadership. The GOP alternative is simply too dangerous. The House GOP is threatening to cause a recession by defaulting on the national debt. According to Mark Zandi of Moody’s, The House GOP budget bill — if passed — would cause a recession. In either case, the GOP would blame Biden for their own recession.

Trump is more dangerous now than ever. The runaway front for the GOP nomination is now threatening retribution if he’s elected. DeSantis has an extreme record in Florida. He has banned books, banned abortions after six weeks and signed a permitless conceal carry law that will flood the streets with guns and endanger lives.

In addition to running on our accomplishments, Biden and the Democrats are running on freedom. You can’t get more pro-America and patriotic than that.

President Biden has correctly stated that freedom and democracy are on the ballot in 2024. The MAGA Republicans want to control women’s lives, marginalize the LGBTQ community and ban books. These extremists want to steal your rights and your future. We can’t let them get away with it.

Biden and the Democrats are the only ones standing between the American people and a Republican Party determined to roll back rights and limit freedoms. We can’t count on the mainstream press or prosecutors to save our freedom and liberty. We are the only check and balance on a radicalized Republican Party.

The stake couldn’t be much higher next year. It’s progress versus extremism in 2024. It’s America or the MAGA Republican Party. Choose wisely.

Now let’s get it done!