This unaltered story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.org. License [2]: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/Int'l. ------------------------ ‘Joe Biden owes us’: How a struggling administration can win back voters By: [] Date: 2022-03 “Why does Biden talk about Trump?” Sayed, a Lyft driver, asked me last week in Boston. “Why doesn't he talk about what is going on today? That people can't feed their families. That my children aren't learning anything in school because they have so many teachers out sick right now.” On the first anniversary of Joe Biden’s entering office, there is an eerie feeling of political paralysis. As Omicron surges across the US, with nearly a million cases everyday and two thousand daily deaths – the administration is failing to, even rhetorically, connect with the hardships many people are experiencing. Several weeks ago, for example, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, scoffed at the idea that the federal government should deliver at-home tests to people (a position on which the administration has since U-turned); while vice-president Kamala Harris told people to “Google” where to find a test when questioned on the shortages. Biden himself, meanwhile, has barely even been questioned by the press – holding fewer news conferences in his first year than any other president in the past 40 years. But the problems are far deeper than the Omicron wave or communications mishaps. Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now Biden ran on a bold agenda, promising to pass significant climate legislation, deliver voting rights, and cancel a chunk of student debt. However, one year in, with the likely failure of the Democrats’ signature infrastructure and voting rights legislation, he has alienated many political allies and core constituencies who mobilized to get him elected. Bernie Sanders – who had been a vocal ally of the administration last year – is publicly asserting that the party has turned its backs on the working class. Polling from Gallup indicates that Democrats began 2021 with a nine-point advantage. In the fourth quarter of 2021 this reversed to Republicans holding a five-point advantage. Polling for younger Americans (aged 18-29) is even more striking. Biden currently has an approval rating of 46%, having dropped 13 points since the beginning of the administration, according to Harvard Kennedy School. Some 52% of young people in the US believe that the country’s democracy is “in trouble” or a “failed democracy”. This palpable frustration is emanating from many people I’ve spoken with across the country this week. Last week, following Biden’s trip to Atlanta, I spoke to Stephanie Ali, the policy director for the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “When Biden was running there was a lot of talk about being able to work with us, and being experienced in Senate rules and deal making – and that just hasn’t come through,” she said. The New Georgia Project Action Fund, Black Voters Matter along with several other civil rights groups, boycotted the president’s visit. “Working-class people, disproportionately Black and brown people, delivered the fucking election to Joe Biden, he actually owes us,” said Astra Taylor, the documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the group the Debt Collective, which advocates for student debt cancellation, when we spoke last week. Meanwhile, Republicans are efficiently mobilizing and clamping down on voting rights in state legislatures across the country. And Democrats now appear consigned to losing control of Congress in the November midterms this year. Following a very brief honeymoon period, can the administration turn the tide to prevent these midterm losses, and a Republican victory in 2024? It’s possible, but as I’ve heard, Biden must really start delivering – even without Congress. Retreading the road to nowhere Biden promised to deliver trillions to invest in green energy and jobs, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, cancel a minimum of $10,000 of student debt, pass voting rights, lower prescription drug prices and more. He was not Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren – but for the former vice-president and centrist senator from Delaware – it was fairly impressive. In the months after Biden’s election, Democrats swiftly passed the $1.9trn American Rescue Plan, which delivered one-off $1400 checks to most Americans, as well as funding for schools, municipalities and small business loans. The plan also lowered child-poverty rates by nearly 30%, with the child tax credit whereby 36 million households received monthly cash payments (of up to $300 per child under six and $250 for children under 18). However, these programs have now all essentially dried up. Congress also passed the $550bn bipartisan infrastructure package, which includes funding for roads, bridges and water pipes. (Yet it notably does little to cut fossil fuel production.) And the administration has made some important strides through the power of the executive branch. Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan (but is now imposing severe economic sanctions in the country, leading to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises), significantly limited drone strikes abroad, and appointed Lina Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission, who is spearheading anti-monopoly actions. Yet the bulk of Biden’s political capital last year was spent on passing – along the slimmest party lines – the Build Back Better package, which included many progressive policy items such as significant climate investments and incentives, an extension of the child tax credit, prescription drug price reform and paid leave. [END] [1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/joe-biden-one-year-anniversary-democrats-student-debt-voters-rights/ [2] url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ OpenDemocracy via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/