I’ve been more hearing more stories about Joe Biden slipping more disastrously in the polls, that I’m not even sure if there’s any point of posting real news about Joe Biden.
The Tonga typhoon and Kazakhstan/Albania protests are more interesting than Biden still pretending he’s in charge. Even that slight terrorist attack in a Texas synagogue was more suspenseful to read about today.
Is this was U.S. politics has devolved into? Because I’m still waiting for it to be interesting.
I don't think Biden's approval numbers matter much anymore, at least in the sense of getting things done. But it will be funny to watch.
What I mean with it not mattering anymore is that in politics it is all about negotiations and compromises. On tough issues you negotiate and "if you do this for me then I will do that for you" and you trade and you deal and make progress. And what makes this process work is political capital. You buy and sell agreements and favors using political capital.
That is not just about political life but covers all aspects of all forms of social groups. You compromise for a common outcome.
In a friend or family setting it is called trust but it is the exact same thing as political capital, just a different word for it,
"Bob, can you give me a ride to the grocery store? In exchange I will make it up to you and bring all the beers for the saturday game".
If the TRUST/POLITICAL CAPITAL exists then the agreement is possible. IF it doesn't then Bob will not give you a ride.
Bidens problem is he now has zero political capital. He is widely disliked and toxic. His tent-pole legislation has all completely failed.
His friends in house and senate all know that they face a really material posibility that some of them will lose their seat come the midterms.
Biden himself is so toxic by now he can not even offer "I can come and help your campaign if you do this other thing for me".
He has zero political capital and he has about zero opportunities left to create any capital. Instead, he is so toxic he is a real liability to any and all democrats that are up for election in the midterms.
If I were Biden's handlers I would probably just put a lid on it for the rest of 2022 and remove him completely from the spotlight and media.
No speeches, no interviews no nothing since anything he does will just poison his democrats congress members re-election chances.
That and then hope for the best and that the democrats will by an act of god still have majorities after the midterms.