Biden Approval Index: This Sure Doesn't Look Like the Mandate Democrats Think They Have
President Joe Biden got 80 million votes in the 2020 election. Both candidates exceeded the maximum number ever achieved by an elected president, but Biden got the most. There should be unbridled enthusiasm for his agenda with that popular vote haul. His team believes it’s so and has decided to bypass Congress and govern with a pen. As of January 29th, Biden had signed 42 executive actions, including 24 executive orders.
He has signed more than half the number of executive orders most modern presidents averaged in a year in just nine days and reports say several more are coming today:
- Trump — 55
- Obama — 35
- Bush — 36
- Clinton — 46
- Bush — 42
- Reagan — 48
And some of the remaining 18 executive actions have far-reaching consequences that rival an executive order. He rejoined the Paris Climate Accords, effectively entering a treaty without Senate approval, just like his old boss did. This treaty will have devastating effects on the energy industry as well as the industrial base. He also reinstituted the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, a federal power grab to remake the suburbs by mandating zoning and other actions to diversify communities, something a majority of Americans disapprove of.
But he got 80 million votes. So, all of this must be extremely popular with likely voters, right? Not according to Rasmussen, a polling firm that has conducted the Daily Presidential Tracking Poll since Gallup stopped doing it when Barack Obama was elected. The pollster has used a consistent methodology since 2008, and polls likely voters who have demonstrated they participate in elections.
As of day seven, how is President Biden doing?
Biden has not been above water a single time in the Approval Index rating. This index is the difference between how many likely voters strongly approve and how many strongly disapprove. Total approval has hit 50% once so far. How does this compare with President Trump’s first seven days (headings are the same)?
This result is astonishing when you think about it. President Biden has the full weight of nearly every corporate media outlet, tech company, and cultural institution behind him. They have been drooling all over themselves to convince us this is a return to unifying normalcy. After all, his favorite ice cream is chocolate chip, and his two German Shepherds just love their new digs. So normal. So unifying.
President Trump had the specter of Russian collusion hanging over his head; Democrats already talking about impeaching him; the p*ssy hat brigade protesting in the streets; and a never-ending media onslaught. He was “literally Hitler” and just dying to let his dictatorial freak flag fly. The day before Biden’s Inauguration, Trump’s Approval Index was the name as Biden’s yesterday, and his approval rating was 51%.
Trump’s 55 executive orders per year drastically reduced government interference in people’s lives and the economy. His administration committed that for every order that promulgated a new rule, they’d rescinded at least two. So, roughly 17 executive orders per year directed the agencies to do something new, rather than telling them to stop doing something they had been doing.
You may be old enough to remember President Obama’s first two years in office with much larger Democrat majorities. The administration shoved through a wildly unpopular bailout and the stimulus bill. Then they rammed Obamacare through. Like Biden, Obama had the full support of our cultural institutions and a fawning media. Despite the unpopular policies, he did not see his first negative Approval Index rating until June 21, 2009. He didn’t fall under 50% approval until July 24th of the same year.
Perhaps this is what happens when you relax voting rules to encourage people who don’t usually vote to participate. Activists opened up the floodgates with drop boxes, massive mail-in voting participation, and even the collecting of those ballots in some states. Or you get a billionaire to invest in a get-out-the-vote initiative in Democrat strongholds. These tactics might get you the W, but it doesn’t get you buy-in for your candidate’s agenda.
And in general, the exercise of pure political power based on the thinnest possible majority in government does not go well. Yet, Democrats seem intent on destroying our institutions, solely to ram through a radical agenda that is already unpopular. If history is any guide, assuming a mandate you don’t have is not a smart move, and 2022 will not go well for them.