Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when family and friends gather across the country to enjoy a hearty turkey meal, celebrate one’s blessings, and, yes, discuss politics, mainly when the annual gathering takes place 12 months before a presidential election. This year was especially the case, coming the same week as the incumbent president faced a double-drumstick of bad news, notching a new low in his approval rating and turning a staggering 81 years of age, a record for his position.
With Biden’s reputation gone to the birds, political discussions in many homes at this year’s feast likely revolved around many front-of-mind concerns revealed in recent polling, such as inflation, crime, the border, and wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Yet, like a single item on the Thanksgiving menu, none of these issues explain Biden’s plunge in the polls as he approaches his fourth year in office.
Like a four-course Thanksgiving feast, understanding Biden’s unpopularity requires the whole picture, namely viewing his record through four distinct servings of issues that are borne out in recent polling. To talk business, in the eyes of many Americans, Joe Biden fills the plate – he had proved one the most incompetent, corrupt, divisive, and mentally unfit presidents in history.
First, Americans see him as incompetent. Bidenomics has fallen flat, as 78% of Americans have a negative view of the economy, and a total 47% rate the country’s financial picture as “poor,” a 19-point jump on the president’s watch. Inflation, in particular, worries the country more than any other issue, with 89% of registered voters saying they are “very” or “extremely” concerned about the rise in prices.
Other issues top of mind for voters this fall include higher crime rates (82%), Hamas’s war on Israel (74%), Islamic terrorism (73%), gun laws (72%), and border security (69%). By double-digit margins, voters consider Republicans better qualified to handle the economy and these other issues than Biden’s party. This doesn’t even touch on Biden’s weak and woke military that has damaged recruiting and national security on his watch.
Second, to use the tired liberal phrase, the walls are closing in on the Biden family corruption. More than two thirds of the country says Biden “has acted illegally or unethically in his son [Hunter]’s business dealings,” with a majority of those saying the president broke the law. Sixty percent of Americans say the president lied when he declared repeatedly that he had no knowledge of Hunter’s business dealings and instead say he actually “helped and participated” in them. The Biden shakedowns are clearly coming home to roost.
Third, Americans have had enough of Biden dividin’ the country. Sixty percent say Biden pulled the country apart when he declared in a marquee Philadelphia speech one year ago that “equality and democracy are under assault” and that Republicans “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” forcing active duty Marines to flank him while serving up that plate of stuffing, no less. And this doesn’t take into account Biden’s calling 74 million Trump voters “semi-fascis[ts],” and weaponizing the Justice Department against his chief political opponent by telling his “inner circle” he wanted the former president “prosecuted” over January 6.
Last, Americans see Biden as mentally unfit for the job. The stumbles, the bumbles, the slurred speech, and Biden’s using the kiddie steps up to Air Force One – it’s all taken a toll on how Americans feel about the man with his finger on the nuclear trigger. More than half the country says Biden “no longer has the competence to carry out the job of president,” and 64% of Americans are “concerned or very concerned” about his “health and mental acuity.”
Democrat leader David's summary earlier this month takes the cake on Biden’s literal state of mind: “In front of the camera, what [Biden’s] projecting is causing people concerns, and that is worrisome.”
As always, Americans at Thanksgiving this year have much to celebrate, but with such a buffet of bad news regarding their chief executive, it’s no surprise few are gobbling up the idea of returning for seconds on what Biden’s serving.
Mr. Ullyot is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former deputy assistant to President Trump.