“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Henry David Thoreau’s words could well apply to the current electorate, specifically those who readily support Democrats in presidential races. Political history generally points to a binding consensus among voters when their chosen party is in power and still passing — what some describe as — substantive legislation. And yet, for the current crop, it seems that Montgomery Brewster’s ill-fated campaign slogan rings true: None of the above.
A significant new poll from the Associated Press, carried out by the University of Chicago, detailed who Democrats would like to see lead their party. The good news for President Joe Biden is that of the people named, he was way ahead. The bad news is that his victory was a mere 12%. A whopping 37% opted for “no answer” or “don’t know.”
Democrats on Parade?
Coming in behind the present commander-in-chief were House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) – whose main claim to fame is that congressional Democrats united behind his bid for the Speaker’s gavel knowing it was ultimately a lost cause — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the last potential candidate still stubbornly refusing to put a “D” next to his name. Each of these scored an unremarkable 5% support from voters.
And then follow the true outsiders in an unfortunate position for people with such name recognition. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer each received just 3% support in the poll of Democrat voters. Notably, Obama is unable to serve in this office again due to term limits, and Harris — according to an aggregate of polls – is one of the least popular members of her party nationally underwater by more than 14 points.
Where’s the Beef, Joe?
Joe Biden (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
With better-than-expected midterm results, political watchers would assume at least some bump in the president’s favorability rankings. And yet his polling results have, in fact, slumped since November. Presently, Biden enjoys the general support of around 42% of the nation — a difficult position for a man who many believe will soon make an announcement to leverage his incumbent position into four more years. But this is not an unprecedented situation; President Harry Truman managed just such a revival to secure his unlikely second term in 1948.
So, perhaps the statistical malaise rests with the voters themselves rather than in the party leadership. After all, Americans endured more than half a decade of anti-Trump rhetoric that demonized any who would not kowtow to the overarching progressive ideology that dominates the media to this day. Surely, with such a terrible president, a terrible human!, a nation free from his orange-hued shadow would be naught but sunlight uplands? Right?
Alone in a Desert
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
It appears that an air of disillusionment has swept the party faithful into the abyss of doubt and recrimination. Rather than realize that their 2020 candidate was merely a seasoned politician with blind support from an activist Fourth Estate, Democrat voters fooled themselves into thinking that Biden was something special in the DC Swamp. They refused to acknowledge that he was the epitome of the politics that led to Trump’s shock-and-awe victory in 2016. And the rest of the Democratic Party leadership chose not to reveal the obvious truth.
“When the waterholes were dry, people sought to drink at the mirage,” wrote Evelyn Waugh in Brideshead Revisited. And the people are so very thirsty. They have faced a leadership drought of such magnitude that a simple word of praise from a partisan hack posing as a mainstream journalist appears a fount, and not just of water but of vitality and eternal vigor. They are parched, they are dry, and nothing but a storm of biblical proportion will slake them.
