Erosion of Trust in the Institutional Left on Covid, Biden, and Immigration Could

[HARDCORE]

Erosion of Trust in the Institutional Left on Covid, Biden, and Immigration Could Spell the End of Leftism

By Manzanita Miller May 1, 2024

Big government leftism has experienced a rapid erosion of public trust over the past four years due to three national calamities: Covid, Biden, and the border.

President Joe Biden’s approval rating has been alarmingly low for over twelve solid months and Americans say by a two to one margin Biden’s policies have personally hurt them, yet the Democratic Party refuses to entertain other options and continues to push for Biden’s nomination. This refusal to advise Biden to step aside and allow more capable alternatives to run has eroded trust in the Democratic party.

On top of that, the record-high number of illegal aliens streaming across the southern border has prompted a plurality of Americans to declare a border crisis and demand stricter border control. Positive sentiment for immigration is falling rapidly as more Americans begin to view the border crisis as a threat to the economy and national security.

Lastly, the institutional left’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which undermined freedom of association, deprived citizens of medical privacy, and put the nation into an economic coma from which it has yet to recover, is far from forgotten.

All three issues have deeply marred the brand of corporate leftism which has swallowed the Democratic Party and will have serious repercussions in years to come.

The draconian response in blue states and cities to the coronavirus deeply eroded public trust in centralized power, and has driven coalitions of former left-leaning groups away from Democrats.

Americans for Limited Government Foundation noted last year that the pandemic appears to have pushed parents of school age children toward the right politically due to school closures and mask and vaccine mandates pushed by leftists.

YouGov data from 2022 showed Covid restrictions pushed by Democrats drove parents of school age children toward former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and that trend has continued to accelerate.

We also have evidence that the pandemic substantially altered the political inclinations of young adults and has pushed large numbers of Gen Z voters toward the right.

Battleground state polling from the New York Times shows a double-digit decline in support for Biden among young voters. The Times poll found Biden winning a scarce 47% of the vote from 18–29-year-olds in November, a twenty-point decline compared to 2020.

Then there is the institutional left’s refusal to bench Biden and replace a clearly incompetent man with someone more politically and practically feasible. Despite attempts at launching a Democratic alternative with the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and widespread belief among the public that Biden is incapable of fulfilling his job as president, the Democratic Party refuses to shuttle Biden aside and unearth an alternative.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who said he wouldn’t vote for Biden a week ago, recently tweeted on X that, “the biggest mistake Democrats have made is supporting @POTUS [Joe] Biden for a second term.” Ackman pointed out that by pushing Biden, Democrats gave Biden “false confidence” that he can win the election and dissuaded alternative Democratic contenders from emerging.

Mounting evidence shows a fracturing of the left, with Biden losing double-digit support among key coalitions of swing voters who supported him in 2020. Americans may have their concerns and reservations about Trump and “preserving democracy”, but by and large every recent public opinion poll shows a majority of Americans give Trump positive marks on important issues, including the economy and immigration.

A recent Siena College/ New York Times poll found Americans say by a two to one margin Biden’s policies have “personally hurt” them more than helped them, but the public say by a fifteen point margin that Trump’s policies have “personally helped”.

The same poll found swing voters strongly favor Trump’s governing, with women saying Trump’s policies “personally helped them” by a 17-point margin, Hispanics saying Trump’s policies helped them by a 15-point margin, and young people saying Trump’s policies personally helped them by a 6-point margin.

Lastly, the institutional left has been dismally wrong on pushing their destructive Open Borders policy, an agenda that could not be more out of step with the needs and opinions of American citizens.

Under Biden’s reckless Open Borders agenda, nine million illegals have entered the country through the U.S.-Mexico border, including 1.8+ million who escaped Border Patrol and are now roaming about without documentation.

A series of opinion polls since Biden’s border crisis became an inescapable threat to civil society show that the public is increasingly unwilling to accept the assault on the southern border.

A recent NPR / Marist poll finds that Americans have adopted an aggressive deportation mindset with regard to handling illegal immigrants, with the nation saying 51 percent to 48 percent that all illegals should be deported. This is a drastic change from just a few years ago and speaks to voters’ growing distrust of the institutional left’s Open Borders agenda.

Another NPR/Marist poll found the number one priority for the largest share of the American public – 41% – is increasing security along the southern border to prevent illegal border crossings.

The poll also found support for immigration as a whole has declined nine percentage-points since July 2021. 60 percent of U.S. adults give the Biden Administration poor marks on handling immigration. This sentiment is far from exclusive to Republicans – 66% of independents and 30% of Democrats as well as 90% of Republicans take issue with Biden’s Open Borders policy.

A mid-January Morning Consult poll also found that a growing number of Americans believe illegal immigration harms our economy, with Americans saying 64% to 25% that illegal immigration hurts the U.S. economy. This includes 42% of Americans who voted for Biden in 2020.

The institutional left was already on very shaky ground leading into the last two presidential election cycles, but after four years of the Biden regime and grave lapses in judgment on Covid and Open Borders, this particular brand of leftism has lost substantial credibility. No one is saying the public is fully rejecting all aspects of liberalism, but it is hard to argue that the draconian style of big-government leftism has not taken a substantial hit.

Manzanita Miller is an associate editor at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/05/erosi...nd-of-leftism/