Biden Promised Return to Normalcy, But 7 in 10 Say It Was a Bad Year for the US
President Joe Biden started out his administration with hopeful rhetoric about “renewal and resolve” with him at the helm of the ship of state, but after nearly one year, Americans are not impressed.
A new Fox Business survey found that 70 percent of voters believe it was a bad year for the country, while over half — 55 percent — feel it was bad for them personally.
Just 19 percent of voters believe 2021 was a good year for the country.
Much of this is likely COVID-driven, with more deaths recorded this year due to the illness than last.
In 2020, during the first year of the pandemic, 78 percent of voters felt it was a bad year for the country.
You’d have to go back to 2019 to find a time when a majority of Americans thought it was either a good year or at least a mixed one.
The economy was booming at that time and the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low.
#Breaking: New @FoxBusiness poll—
7 in 10 say 2021 was a bad year for the countryhttps://t.co/JR1lnbOF8T pic.twitter.com/FaBEFbYWsV
— Mike Emanuel ?? (@MikeEmanuelFox) December 20, 2021
“These findings are unusual, because Americans tend to be optimistic about the future,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducted the Fox poll along with Democrat Chris Anderson.
[firefly_poll]
“The promise of 2021 was that we would get off the roller coaster, but instead it felt like the ride was just as intense with little hope of returning to normalcy. For many of us, that is a little depressing,” he added.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows approximately 61 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, while only 31 percent think it’s going in the right direction.
In May, more still thought the country was on the wrong track, but the spread was less, approximately 50 percent to 42 percent.
Truthfully, by the spring, it was clear that Biden was taking the U.S. in the wrong direction with his decisions to essentially open the border, halt construction on the border wall, shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline and pause oil drilling permits on federal lands.
Then, of course, came the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which the Democratic Congress passed with no Republican support, and Biden signed into law in March.
Next came the Afghanistan debacle in August and COVID-19 employer vaccine mandates in September, inflation hitting a 30-year high and the list goes on.
Biden was not helping the nation’s mood closing out the year when he predicted a “winter of severe illness and death for [the] unvaccinated” last week.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich likened it to former President Jimmy Carter’s 1979 infamous “Crisis of Confidence” speech, which has become known as his “malaise” address.
President Biden’s warning of a “winter of severe illness and death” makes President Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech urging Americans to lower expectations seem a cheerful upper by contrast. How do Democrats run as the party of “severe illness and death”? This is madness.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) December 18, 2021
Real Clear Politics president Tom Bevan argued it actually made “Carter’s malaise speech look like a real pep talk.”
Geez. Biden’s “Winter of Death” remarks make Jimmy Carter’s malaise speech look like a real pep talk. https://t.co/DkxoNXWjx4
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) December 17, 2021
Well, here’s a hopeful thought: If Biden is this generation’s Carter, another Ronald Reagan could be right around the corner!
The Fox Business survey was conducted from Dec. 11-14 with 1,002 registered voters selected randomly nationwide. The margin of error is +/- 3 percent.
