President Biden has made preserving and protecting American democracy a central issue in his reelection campaign. He regularly present oneself as a true champion of democracy They claim that the election of his opponent, Donald Trump, would mean the end of democracy in the country.
As he said in a speech earlier this year: 3rd Anniversary Referring to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, he said, “Whether democracy remains America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time and the focus of the 2024 election.”
“The choice is clear,” Biden continued. “Donald Trump’s campaign is about himself, not about America, not about you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He is willing to sacrifice our democracy to seize power for himself.”
The President concluded that America must be clear that “democracy is on the ballot, your freedom is on the ballot.”
a The Washington Post-George Mason University Polls released this week contain good news and bad news for the Biden campaign. First, It shows Biden has made great strides. They succeeded in persuading voters that democracy was indeed a matter for voting: In a survey of voters in battleground states, 61% said that “threats to democracy” were extremely important.
Unfortunately for Biden, this same poll shows he has failed to convince people that voting for him is the best way to preserve and/or improve democracy: 44% of voters surveyed in these states said they think Trump is best suited to address threats to democracy, while just 33% said they support Biden.
The picture is even worse for Biden if we focus only on “undecided” voters: Among that group, 38% trust Trump as the guardian of democracy. Just 29% trust Biden on democratic issues.
The Washington Post said, “The results signal a worrying outcome for Mr Biden, who needs to convince voters who may not be enthusiastic about his candidacy that they must reject Mr Trump to protect America’s representative system of government.”
Biden’s problem is that voters don’t perceive him as a guardian of democracy, and many Very dissatisfied There is a problem with the way our democracy currently functions. Voters can see what he has done to improve our democracy while he has been in the Oval Office. Voters don’t like what they are seeing.
Evidence of this dissatisfaction is everywhere: Take, for example, the Georgetown Institute for Politics and Public Service’s Battleground Civility Poll, conducted in March.
that found “A majority of voters (68%) are dissatisfied with the way our democracy is run. Republicans (79%) and independents (73%) are understandably dissatisfied given their lack of power in the White House and Congress, but even a majority of Democrats (56%) report being dissatisfied with the way our democracy is run.”
Other polls have expressed similar views.
May, ABC News report“Voters are generally deeply dissatisfied with the state of our democracy, suggesting the country is heading in the wrong direction and expressing pessimism about whether it can be improved.” The same is true for other problems.But many voters don’t think Biden has dealt with the problems of democracy well.
And here again, Trump is benefiting from nostalgia and revisionism about his assault on democracy. Registered in January of this year According to another Washington Post poll.
The survey found that “55% of voters say the January 6th attack on the Capitol was an attack on democracy that must never be forgotten, while 43% think there has been too much noise and it is time to move on.”[M]Members of the two major parties have differing views, with 86% of Democrats saying the attacks should never be forgotten and 72% of Republicans saying now is the time to reckon with history.”
A key finding is that, compared to the same poll two years ago, “voters’ opinions of protesters appear to have softened over time.”
Biden’s democratic problems also stem from the mere fact that an octogenarian incumbent is seeking reelection. Even most Democrats would prefer that he not do so.That he will be on the ballot in November’s election is proof enough that democracy is not working well for many voters.
Moreover, the results of the Washington Post poll offer another example of Trump’s skill in the messaging wars: They suggest that the former president has persuaded many people. The announcement was made at a rally in New Hampshire last December.“Joe Biden is a threat to democracy”
He said Biden had shown himself to be a threat to democracy by leading a “politically motivated persecution of political opponents.” As the Post put it, “TrumpTurning the issue of democracy upside down Biden is weaponizing the justice system to falsely claim that he and his allies are facing multiple criminal investigations.”
Trump RepeatedHis message about politically motivated prosecutions and the weaponization of the Biden Justice Department has been repeated hundreds, maybe thousands, of times. He has made it a centerpiece of his campaign.
Biden, by contrast, talks about democracy only occasionally. He says he’s running to protect democracy.But days or weeks could go by without the president emphasizing that theme.
And Americans don’t just want our democracy to be protected — they want it to be reformed and improved.
If Biden wants to address the flashing red flags suggested by the Washington Post poll results, he will have to put in the effort.
So far, Biden has not found a way to talk about democracy that is clear, unambiguous, and connects with the concerns of American voters. If Biden is to win in November, he will need to refresh and revamp how he talks about democracy.
Going forward, Biden will have to frankly acknowledge voters’ dissatisfaction with democracy. He will have to lay out a plan for what he will do to address that dissatisfaction.
Ultimately, if Biden has any chance of reelection, he will need to be more specific about why voters should trust him to make our democracy work better after three years in office. As the Washington Post poll results show, Biden’s promise to preserve a system that many see as failing is not a winning message.
Austin Surratt is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law and Political Science at Amherst College.
