Writes Ross Douthat, in "Why Is Joe Biden So Unpopular?" (NYT).
Douthat has various other ideas for answering that question: "Maybe some voters now just assume that a vote for Biden is a vote for the hapless Kamala Harris. Maybe there’s just a vigor premium in presidential campaigns that gives Trump an advantage."
But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal.
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Join them next week… as they search for a clue on “Unsound Mysteries”.
"But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal."
Any evidence that mere corruption and depravity make a difference to Dem voters?
Anyway, it would be smart for the GOP to position itself as the party of normal morals, normal borders, normal transportation, normal energy, normal streets, normal policing, normal same-day secret-ballot elections, and normal schools teaching normal things.
Yeah, child mutilation is not popular with normal people.
The GOP needs to hang this trans business around the necks of all Dems in 2024.
No currently able to view what else Douthat missed, but I’m sure a lot of voters are tired of going to their once favorite grocery store, finding essential food items 5x more expensive, and various items locked behind cages to keep the drug addicted homeless from shoplifting what remains. This is the story on the large towns like LA, Philadelphia, and NYC that went heavily for Biden.
And oh yeah, Biden’s tax avoiding and drug addicted son is whoring it up with money from foreign governments and getting sweetheart prosecution deals for gun violations. All the things Joe talked tough about when pushing abusive crime bills and demanding the rich would pay.
Kamala talked tough too, put a lot of innocent people in jail, and now SF is a wasteland. Who wants more of that?
White suburban voters have been shifting left since the 90s- halted temporarily by the 9/11 attacks and the response from each party- and the Dems like it because it solidified power with a core group rather than the coalition of aggrieved groups which made up the party previously. It's allowed them to abandon the blue-collar whites who made up the rank and file for a long time. Unfortunately, those blue-collar whites shared a lot of the same values as the blue-collar black and hispanic dems as well.
The problem is that the party can't reverse course without angering the suburban white women who are now essential to Dem victories.
you mean that people don't LIKE the idea that schools can chemically castrate your children, without Even informing you? AND that IF you somehow find out and complain, they will be able take your children away from you??
People DON'T Like that? huh!
Peopel don't like tyrants. Democrats have become tyrants. Why the confusion?
"Why is Joe Biden so unpopular?"
When has Joe Biden ever been popular? Perhaps the better question to ask is: Why would he be popular, and what are his untarnished redeeming features?
Biden got elected, in part, by casting himself as a transitional figure, a bridge to a more youthful and optimistic future.
Is that true? Biden got elected because he wasn't Donald Trump. Biden has delivered on that. In the primaries, Biden was chosen because the establishment wanted him instead of that blustery Sanders.
Biden's two major policy interests seem to be paying off college loans and supporting Ukraine in their war with Russia. Neither of those are likely to engage minority voters.
...all Democrats can do is ask Biden to show more public vigor,...
Good luck with that.
Biden is, and always has been, a racist. Just look at his statements about school segregation and his over the top friendliness of Democrat Jim Crow. It continues with the lack of care for the hundreds of thousands of brown and black children trafficked into slavery and sexual bondage. To get to know Biden is to see a thoroughly corrupt human being that anyone with Jude’s-Christian or Islamic moral values would shun.
An opinion column by a known liar wondering why Biden is unpopular. Insipid writing by Douhat and what is really just an in-kind campaign contribution to the Biden campaign.
However, the reader commentary on this opinion piece is hilarious and should be mocked by the Babylon Bee.
The double-edged scalpel of liberal progress. That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
Althouse writes, "But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal."
But even one word about the Hunter Biden scandal** is an admission that a scandal exists, and that's a no-no on Eighth Avenue -- hell, it's verboten anywhere between the Battery and Harlem. Douthat loves the A-list nightlife far more than honesty, so expect no transgressions, 'kay?
**Funny how we assume it's the Hunter Biden scandal, when it has been ongoing since he was a infant.
It’s hard to blame Beiden for being corrupt for money. He is from Delaware, a small state that got rich by giving extraordinary rights to companies that incorporated in the state encouraging many to “relocate” there. Particularly the anti takeover laws. Beiden made a lot of money helping MBNA bank charge 22 pct interest on credit cards and allow stupid late fees. Delaware was the center of the very lucrative asbestos litigation industry for years, that bankrupted many companies unjustly and corruptly, which led to judges being thrown off cases for bias and quickly hired by law firms as payback.
So poor Joe just had some bad examples and was brought up in a criminal life that led to Ukraine and Burisma. Son of a bitch! They fired him! You know, a fish that keeps his mouth shut don’t get hooked, Joe.
Rhode Island made its money on more mundane organized crime.
What Biden scandal? I'm assured by the media that any allegation of scandal is "without evidence." (Other than the testimony of Biden insiders, contemporaneous emails and documents, the use of fake names when communicating, the use of 20+ bank accounts to launder money, passing payments through uninvolved family members, etc.)
The solution? Reparations, baby. A million billion dollars to every melanin-enriched American expropriated from melanin-deprived colonialists like me, paid in cash on Inauguration Day, 2025.
Inflation, illegal invasion, crime, homelessness, genital mutilation, student loan payoff push, etc. to name a few reasons. My guess is minorities care more about kitchen table issues, not the Biden corruption. Life sucks in the cities nowadays.
There was an AA saying up north that I don't ever hear down here in the south.
If nothing changes, nothing changes.
I think it meant that if you didn't do something different, nothing was going to change.
Automatically voting for the same thing, expecting a different result is kind of like an addiction.
Douthat's mystification tells us something about the impermeability of the bubble he inhabits. Is he actually oblivious to the bubble, or does he understand that his survival hinges upon never puncturing the bubble?
These are precisely the types of voters that have moved from Dem to Independent with polls showing them most positively inclined towards supporting Trump, which was quite expected given the more populist appeal Trump offers these working clasd /lower class diverse voters. RFK also offers something to these voters (again, expected) with West currently peeling off a much smaller % with his recent but sustained attacks on the dem party establishment.
Interestingly, recall the Republican post-mortem analysis of the Romney campaign debacle, delivered to us by the "magnificent" "respectable" GOPe-ers and their pro-globalist America Last class of consultants, explicitly called for expanding republican influence and favorability amongst those rapidly expanding voter groups for long term electoral viability.
Gee, that makes total sense.
Spoiler: the GOPe-ers were lying. They want nothing to do with these more diverse "deplorable" "bitter clinger" "listless vessels".
So the New Sovist Democraticals have nothing to worry about as the GOPe works hand in glove with their democratical allies to remove the ONLY republican candidate with a strong appeal to those newly operationally independent voters.
And make no mistake, they will remove him one way or the other.
That's pretty clueless question. The answers should be pretty obvious to anyone who has been paying attention to what has happened in this country over the past three years.
Maybe minorities are pissed off about Joe Biden flooding their communities with illegal border crossers and showering those border crossers with the money that the minority communities never seem to ever see, no matter how hard they vote for Democrats, the money goes to the white liberals who work for the activist organizations that exist to soak it up, and to show up every other November with some "walking around money" to harvest votes...
Naah!
It's no longer a Hunter Biden scandal.
The press has long tried to make scandal out of family of presidents- Billy Carter, Roger Clinton, one of the Bush daughters, Trump's kids. Only the most partisan paid heed- everybody's family has a drunk, or one who skirts the rules.
This is different- the old man is running the show, or at least was running it, to get his 10% (or is it half?).
Most of the democratic party is desperate for a way to ease the old grifter out, and letting the truth leak will make it possible. They still have to worry about his replacement- they can't allow the disaster that is Harris to take over the top spot, they can't allow a white hetero man to push her aside. I'm thinking maybe Whitmer. The female Hispanic NM gov was in the running until yesterday.
"But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal."
What Hunter Biden scandal?
-CNN
-MSNBC
-ABC
-CBS
-NBC
(I'm being both sarcastic AND generous. The generous part is implying the above re even curious...)
The "Hunter Biden Scandal" is that Joe Biden's family, and almost certainly Joe himself, got rich taking bribes from corrupt foreign sources. Stop focusing on Hunter. It's Joe. Hunter is just the self-destructive bagman who seems bent on getting caught and bringing it all down.
The left inherently breaks away from the status quo. It's what they do. They are "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" thinkers in every place and every era. So, anyone fundamentally satisfied becomes anti-change de-facto conservatives. Some don't realize this for decades, and may twist old labels to keep their self-image alive (e.g., An aging baby-boomer sang "I saw a dead-head sticker on a Cadillac.")
Trump was gaining popularity among Black and Hispanic voters per a positive, uplifting message about US jobs and protecting US citizens. So...the knee-jerk Biden handlers went headlong into belittling all things Trump, opening the borders, destroying the economies of Black-mayor cities, and causing in-fighting among the long-thinking mostly-happy left (now actual conservatives) and the never-ever-ever-happy radical/anarchist left.
Without Trump, Biden's coalition would fall apart in seconds. His strings are quite obviously pulled by his big money donors and activist groups. He'll be remembered as the purest example of a US pay-to-play puppet government official. To paraphrase Lincoln: You can bribe some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't bribe all of the people all of the time.
Gosh, its such a mystery! I guess we will never know.
"But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal."
Ah, but if the NYTs doesn't report on it, is it really a "scandal"?
For many of those who only get their news from NYT or WaPo, the Hunter laptop is all Russian "misinformation" and there is no use trying to tell them otherwise.
Many times, when there is information regarding a democrat scandal about to be released by other news outlets, they will go to the NYTs to get their version out first. Then when the news hits, the paper's loyal readers can respond, "Oh I know all about that and here is why the democrat did nothing wrong."
Not one word about the fact that Joe, His brother and his son are all corrupt.
There is a multitude of answers why Biden is unpopular, but the real question is "Why is Joe Biden as Popular as he is?"
Does anyone know about that scandal?
Biden is scandal enough. Hunter just proves something we have known for years. Joe Biden is a liar and a crook.
Ross Doutht has written about the Hunter Biden problem before so he is surely aware of it. So why not mention it today? I'd guess he is aware of the sensitivities of his NY Times readership and is trying to meet "them where they are", which is mostly inclined to dismiss the Hunter Biden misbehavior as reflecting poorly on Joe.
That said, the ground may be shifting - today the NY Times actually uses the phrase "political peril" in a Father and Son story about Hunter:
"President Biden Keeps Hunter Close Despite the Political Peril".
Not a problem as long as he still has the support of the counters of minority votes.
I don’t think that you can separate this from the topic of an earlier thread today, on the Dems following their elites supporting FJB, despite how horribly the cabal controlling him does. That party has become the party of billionaires fronted by token minorities. It’s long been controlled by money, depending far more on large contributions, than the GOP.
What separates the working class from the middle class? ~Not that much, at least any more. Maybe it is just the plumber who gives up his union job to start his own company. He stays in the same church, and only if he earns a lot of money does he move out of the old neighborhood. Erasing this divide is why a lot of purple states are going red. At least that was the case in MT, where union support for Dems has collapsed. Their corrupt union leaders still have a seat at the table in Dem politics, but they can no longer supply the votes.
The thing about minorities is that many, if not most, want to step up through the generations. We watched the Italians and Irish do it, and join the Republican Party. We are seeing it esp with Hispanics esp right now. The mainstream there works hard, goes to church, and advances. Social issues fade, as economic ones become more important. Blacks are more resistant to this, because they have a more pathological underclass, thanks to centuries now of Dem Party oppression and subsidized helplessness.
Right now we are living in Las Vegas, at least for a couple more weeks, when we can escape to MT, then AZ. There are a lot of Blacks here working. They work hard, go to church, and mostly have their kids in wedlock (though multiple marriages seem common). No different than the Hispanics and Whites in the same positions. We have a surprising number of Blacks working here in security, and my partner seems to have bonded with the women esp. One, last night, whom I didn’t recognize, gave her a big hug on the way to the elevators. They talk of faith, god, and the problems of raising a family. She hugs all of the minority female and maybe half the minority male security people. Good people. And, yes, we live in the Trump hotel here, and the many Blacks we meet here are all pro Trump, while the Black and Hispanic employees, esp, are fiercely protective of the family.
She just doesn’t see the racial lines anymore in Las Vegas in the rank and file workforce that she saw before she moved away 40 years ago. I am sure some remain, but it is much less evident. And that is evidence of why, I think, minority support for the Dems is collapsing. They can play Black, Hispanic, and White underclasses against each other, but it is increasingly hard to do so with the working and middle classes.
That question ("Why Is Joe Biden So Unpopular?") reminds me of why I coined the expression: "Occam's Chainsaw" (compared to "Occam's Razor").
It's not just because it suggests the simplest and most obvious reason, but because even asking the question is so mind-numbingly stupid as to question even the basic sentience of the questioner.
Well, of course he can't mention the Hunter Biden thing because to do so would be an implied admission that it is, in fact, an important issue.
Maybe some voters now just assume that a vote for Biden is a vote for the hapless Kamala Harris.
Nobody's got less hap than her.
But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal.
To the MSM, Hunter Biden is a fictional character, like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
Biden, Inc.
Soft touch prior to the media black out of all things Biden-Corruption.
+We have no southern border at all. Biden admin abusing the asylum rules.
Suppose some libs might finally be open to that reality?
It’s hilarious watching upper-middle-class people grope for an understanding of the most basic facts of life. At the start of the Biden inflation, half of all Americans had less than $500 to their names and two-thirds had less than $1,000. As inflation ate into their tiny savings week after week, it produced a sense of panic. No amount of Paul Krugman and Joy Behar happy talk can change that.
Undertows and riptides come from water returning to sea after having washed ashore as waves: They are directly visible as moving across the sand beneath and in opposition to the next wave. What we’re seeing politically is the undertow from the last “blue wave” of 2020.
Didn't California just pass a bill mandating taking people's children away from them if they refuse to affirm delusions about what gender they are, which could lead to them being sexually mutilated? Could that have anything to do with it?
Reading the comments is bone-chilling. NYT readers actually do live inside a reality distorting, Trump-hating bubble.
The comment section on the piece is fascinating. Large groups include:
1. He’s not unpopular; the polls are wrong. Everyone I know loves him.
2. Trump is so terrible, Trump is also old, anyone who isn’t a Biden fan is an idiot. (Do people not realize that Biden can be unpopular even among those who will vote for him over Trump?)
3. Okay, he is a little unpopular but that’s only because the media attack him all the time. He’s a great president.
(I suspect these same people would reject my view that the Supreme Court has lowered respect ratings because of the way the media portray it.)
I’m also continually surprised by the number of people who think Biden is a good person, a humble man who is trying to bring the country together.
Is it remotely possible that a substantial chunk of "minority voters" are wondering just what the hell was wrong about Trump wanting to build the damn wall?
Let's put it this way Ross. Why is Biden so unpopular with this group or that group? Sometimes you earn things--and Slow Joe has earned his unpopularity. Deal with it.
Enigma: "Without Trump, Biden's coalition would fall apart in seconds."
?????
Ampersand: "Douthat's mystification tells us something about the impermeability of the bubble he inhabits."
Its not a bubble and Douthat is not really mystifelied in the slightest.
Douthat writes as his NYT's paymasters require.
Stop giving these people any benefit of the doubt.
Ron Winkleheimer: "Didn't California just pass a bill mandating taking people's children away from them if they refuse to affirm delusions about what gender they are, which could lead to them being sexually mutilated? Could that have anything to do with it?"
That's certainly a part of it.
There's a video floating around where a reporter asks lunatic West Hollywood types if children should be allowed to transition. As expected, they say yes.
Te dude wanders over to Compton and the responses are "hell no" because those folks are normal.
Where are our resident lefties to tell us why Joe Biden is the very best?
"White suburban voters have been shifting left since the 90s- halted temporarily by the 9/11 attacks and the response from each party- and the Dems like it because it solidified power with a core group rather than the coalition of aggrieved groups which made up the party previously."
Is it that white suburban voters have shifted left, or just white women? I wonder how much of this is the "Julia" phenomenon: educated women becoming less and less likely to find men who are available, willing, and capable of taking care of them the way fathers and husbands would have in generations past, so they turn to the state as the institution that they can submit to and expect lifetime security from in return. I mean, being left wing checks a lot of boxes for women: It means they don't really have to think -- instead, they're just expected to go along. They can identify as a "good person" just by being aligned with left-wing causes and hating conservatives. And supporting socialism and communism promises to usher in an age in which they can enjoy guaranteed lifetime income and financial support without having to earn it.
Ruy Texeria has been all over this on his Liberal Patriot SubStack.
The only groups Democrats are attracting are AWFULs and Karens.
Minority voters are on the same path out of the Democrat Party broken by the 'Reagan Democrats' of the 1980s. The only question is if the GOPe will keep trying to fend them off, or be overwhelmed.
The 'minorities' are just playing hard to get, hoping for more cash.
The Dems will be sure to shovel more pork their way.
People who have gotten on the wrong side of the gun and drug laws or have relatives who have and suffered for it, may be pissed off at Hunter getting a pass and nervous about what they are doing to Trump.
Michelle - good points.
I think the media are playing a game of concern troll. They are not actually concerned. The collective left will show up & vote for Biden.
"At the start of the Biden inflation, half of all Americans had less than $500 to their names and two-thirds had less than $1,000."
Holy cow! Really?
"I’m also continually surprised by the number of people who think Biden is a good person, a humble man who is trying to bring the country together."
Me too. Joe "They'll put ya'll back in chains!" Biden and his Mega-MAGA schtick is trying to bring the country together? Pull the other one, it plays Jingle Bells.
Folks are starting to see that average kids no longer have a chance. Black, white, yellow, natives, no matter. They're all fucked, their parents did it to them.
FUNdeMental Transformation... twerk to it!
Fentanyl gonna sell like hotcakes. Even Afghanistan is gettin production revved up. Youts be droppin like flies.
Why isn't Joe Biden 50 points ahead!!!
Clintonian Cluelessness
"At the start of the Biden inflation, half of all Americans had less than $500 to their names and two-thirds had less than $1,000."
This is inaccurate, but it isn't terribly off the mark. The median household savings in the US was $5300 as of 2019. Of course, that isn't per capita, a number which is obviously lower than $5300. But, yeah- half of Americans wouldn't be able to easily replace a car engine if they had to, or a roof on house.
...all Democrats can do is ask Biden to show more public vigor,...
========
might be an amusing 'spectacle' >> can you find 'Dr Jill' be discerned against bedspread?
----------------------
The bedding ceremony refers to the wedding custom of putting the newlywed couple together in the marital bed in front of numerous witnesses, usually family, friends, and neighbors, thereby completing the marriage.
The purpose of the ritual was to establish the consummation of the marriage, either by actually witnessing the couple's first sexual intercourse, or symbolically, by leaving before consummation. It symbolized the community's involvement in the marriage. The legally binding nature of the ceremony varied greatly from place to place and through time.
Is it that white suburban voters have shifted left, or just white women? I wonder how much of this is the "Julia" phenomenon:
White suburban voters, but amplified by white suburban women, who are now very dominant in the party and in the who network of NGOs, Non Profits, and middle-management that drives a lot of this progressive crap. However, there are plenty of men who buy into it as well, especially as the white collar jobs have shifted increasingly to globocorp and gov/contractor jobs.
"But not one word about the Hunter Biden scandal."
Why would Democrats care about that?
Douthat has decided to proselytize within the NYT, which is like standing at a freeway ramp barefoot waving a frayed cardboard sign asking for spare change.
I only hope he has the integrity to similarly drink his paycheck.
Front page headline from yesterday's Times: "President Biden Keeps Hunter Close Despite the Political Peril."
Also: "GOP Gets the Democratic Border Crisis it Wanted."
Yancey Ward said...
"Where are our resident lefties to tell us why Joe Biden is the very best?"
They can't. They know that he's a loser that has wrecked this country and they're responsible.
There's a video clip going around. Jill Biden arrived somewhere and a voice from a subdued croud yelled out, "Hey, Jill, You owe all of us a tank of gas!"
They owe us more than that, but I like the sentiment. The Biden administration really hates they working people of this country.
Inflation is a regressive tax. Real wages have declined for the median household every year since Biden was inaugurated. That hurts almost everyone, but it hurts lower income households more. If some minority groups are more likely to be in a lower income household, they may be reacting to the decline in real wages, which they feel even if they can't explain it in the way that a trained economist might. You don't even need to pay attention to news to know it's happening, because you can see the change in prices at the grocery store and dollar store and compare it to the small changes in your wages.
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