How did she do it? Americans weigh in on Biden’s performance. – The Denver Post
President Joe Biden took office at a particularly polarizing time in American history, so it’s no surprise that people are divided over his performance at the one-year mark.
A Georgia history teacher who voted for Biden would give him a “C,” apologizing to the president for not pushing for the end of the Senate race earlier but for supporting the Build Back Better plan. your.
A retired Iowa nurse who supported Pete Buttigieg in the Democratic primaries said she was impressed by how Biden has maintained the dignity of office.
An Arizona-registered independent who voted for former President Donald Trump said Biden’s first year was “pretty bad,” citing the closure of the Keystone XL pipeline and the chaotic pullout. turmoil in Afghanistan.
Here’s what other Americans have to say about the work Biden has done so far:
TRUMP-RED-BIDDING ELECTION
Craig Prichard believes Donald Trump should go to jail. But he’s a far cry from your typical anti-Trumper: He voted for him in 2016.
But not in 2020. “No, sir,” said the self-described 65-year-old from Des Moines, Iowa.
Prichard is still angry with Trump about the January 6 uprising on Capitol Hill, saying he believes the former president caused it. But it was Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic that prompted Prichard to vote for Biden in 2020.
“Trump wants to make it look like COVID is gone,” Prichard said. “That’s not the way to take care of it.”
Prichard, who spent 40 years building farm machinery, worked in construction and eventually retired after working at a meatpacking plant last year, said Biden was “getting the best handle on COVID.” maybe” while solving some other problem.
“Biden, you could say he’s trying to tackle the pandemic, food prices, gas prices, Russia, all at the same time, and he just doesn’t seem to care how he looks. ,” Prichard said. “Because it’s not really good for him right now, even though there are fewer deaths than when Trump was there.”
“Trump, it turns out, only cares about how he looks,” Prichard said.
TEACHER SUPPLYING CLASS “C”
Kai Uchimura, a high school history teacher living in Decatur, Georgia, voted for Biden in 2020. He’s given him a “C” so far.
Uchimura, 26, describes himself as leaning to the left on most issues, even though he is not a registered Democrat. He said he supported Biden’s social policy bill still stalled in Congress, but argued that Democrats had done a less effective job in explaining its benefits.
“That Build Back Better plan, nobody seems to know what’s on the bill except for the cost,” he said.
He also faulted Biden for not pushing sooner to end the Senate run requiring 60 votes to advance most of the legislation. Last week, for the first time, Biden directly advocated dropping the debate to debate and vote on election law and voting rights.
“I know that when he took office, he sent a message about trying to unite the country and spread his arms across the aisle,” said Uchimura. “But I wish he’d realized sooner that this bipartisan era seems to be pretty much on thin ice.”
POLICY DECISIONS CONTRACTORS
Lynn Manning-John, principal of a school on a Native American reservation on the Nevada-Idaho border, is pleased with Biden’s first year in office but worries his presidency has polarized the community. her copper more.
At a Walmart store in Elko County, Nevada, a ranch area very supportive of the former president, she overheard customers complaining about how Biden’s agenda had permeated “Trump country” like how.
“There is only a reluctance to support the current president,” said the 45-year-old independent. “There’s opposition to anything he brings up, even if it’s good and common sense.” She was especially delighted with Biden’s nomination of Deb Haaland, a Native American, as interior secretary.
The superintendent and five of the seven school board members in Elko County resigned last year during a protest by parent groups protesting equity and diversity curriculums in parts of the district outside of the National Park Service. Indians in Duck Valley.
Manning-John sees the resignation and parental demands as an outbreak of backlash to Biden’s 2020 win.
She said that Biden’s election victory remains a pipe dream for many Americans.
“And the absolute uprising that has happened since then is completely direct to the school boards,” she said.
CONTRACTOR BONUS BONUS
Patrick Sweeney voted for Biden but was disappointed that the president had not pushed back more on the left wing of the Democratic Party.
Sweeney, a 62-year-old retired educator in suburban Phoenix who is not affiliated with a political party.
“Much of the conversation seems to focus on the far left of the Democratic Party and progressive views,” Sweeney said. “I think he needs to be more front and center in combating that.”
Sweeney is pleased with the infrastructure bill Biden has signed into law but wants him to stop there rather than push for a massive increase in social services spending.
“I was excited about the initial infrastructure plan,” says Sweeney. “I think it’s long overdue, and I’m really excited to see it, and I think it could have been and should have been a great achievement. Roll the bulldozer and shovel and get to work. She added: “The Build Back Better plan, I think there is so much in it that I don’t see it as necessary or I don’t know that the federal government is the solution to it.”
TRUMP VOTER PERSON IS NOT IMPRESSED
Eric Ollarsaba says Biden’s presidency is “pretty bad”. But Trump’s 33-year-old voter is not surprised.
“He’s doing a lot of work just as I expected,” said Ollarsaba, an independently registered person who lives in Phoenix and works at an online car retailer. “He’s a professional politician.”
He’s frustrated when Biden closes the Keystone XL pipeline, and he’s spooked by the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
“We will likely depend on other countries for energy, which I can see leading to another conflict or we involve ourselves in another,” Ollarsaba said. “I think we still need the American presence in Afghanistan. Not major military operations, but we still need a presence, and I think that would make that area — at least for the United States — a little less dangerous.”
The United States should not have relied on the Taliban’s cooperation to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan, he said. He fears ceding influence there will allow terrorist groups to gain ground.
DEMOCRACY LOVES MAYOR PETE
Biden wasn’t Kathleen Paul’s first choice. The 74-year-old retired nurse likes Pete Buttigieg in the Democratic primaries.
“I think Biden is like ‘Jokin’ Joe,” Paul said. “He said very optimistic things when (Barack) Obama was president. I thought, ‘Can we really take this guy seriously?’
Turns out, a little surprisingly, she can.
“I was really impressed with the way he upheld the dignity of the office, the way he presented himself,” said Paul, a Liberal Democrat from Des Moines, Iowa. “I know he has experience and has been through tragedy. But I didn’t know he could predict its weight. ”
She suggested that Biden followed science in his handling of the pandemic but faulted him for his naive optimism in setting July 4 last year as the date when 70% of the eligible population of country to be vaccinated. That goal was reached months later but the percentage dropped below 70% because children were eligible.
She was also annoyed by the chaotic retreat from Afghanistan, saying the authorities should have known the end result in advance: “Bombs went off, everyone ran down the runway behind the plane.”
“They made the move, and it didn’t go well,” she said. “If you’re there for 20 years, how about another six months to pull the Band-Aid a little slower?”
A BUYER VOTE IS ONE WHO WANT TO MEE OUR OWN SOURCE
Natalie Rawlings, a registered Democrat to vote for Biden, says the president doesn’t get enough credit for all of the things that are going right, like the strong job market that has helped workers. switch jobs more easily.
But she thinks it’s partly his own fault.
“I don’t know why he’s having such a hard time with texting,” said Rawlings, a 50-year-old Atlanta resident who works for a Fortune 500 company. “Does Biden think his plan will sell him?”
She also suggested that Biden had misjudged his ability to entice former Senate colleagues to support his agenda.
“Biden ate more than he could chew,” she said. “Maybe if he did things gradually, but now it looks like he’s turning around.”
It is still early days, but she is skeptical that he will serve as a two-term president.
“I can’t see a clear path for Biden into the second semester,” she said.
VOTER TRUMP PLEASE BE WARRANTY BY SOME CONTRACTOR ORGANIZATIONS
JJ Goicoechea, a cattle rancher from Eureka, Nevada, voted for Trump and plans to vote again Republican, but he says he’s surprised by the agricultural initiatives of the Biden administration, including initiatives tailored to family farms and small ranches like his.
Farms and ranches have received more than $1 billion in relief since Biden took office. The administration has been working to fund independent processors after beef plants closed during the pandemic and engaging climate change-related farmers, working to incentivize them to offset the amount of beef they produce. carbon emissions through tactics such as planting carbon-capture trees.
But Goicoechea, 47, worries the push to strengthen regulations and the Packers and Stockyards Act could have unintended consequences and increase costs in an industry where many ranchers already operate. with small profits. He attributes the inflation to government spending and relief programs the administration has helped get through Congress and says it has raised the cost of everything needed to run a cattle ranch. .
“Costs of doing business have just nearly doubled from last year,” Goicoechea said, citing prices of hay, fuel, fertilizer and tires for pickup trucks and tractors. “I was a bit worried about that happening. We kept asking for help, they gave us a little bit of money, and that drove inflation higher.”
THE SOCIAL WORKER ARE STUDING HIS VOTE
Gina Massiah reluctantly voted for Biden, seeing him as the better of two bad choices. But now, the 49-year-old social worker isn’t so sure.
“Yes, there are a lot of divisions,” the Brooklyn resident said of the Trump era. But with Trump, “you know what you get.”
“Is he obstinate? He is all of those things. None of us are perfect. We all come up with things, don’t we? But I think he will do more if he gets re-elected. She added: “I totally favor him over Biden. And woo, that’s a Negro saying that, isn’t it? “
“That may sound crazy to some people when I’m saying it,” she said, “but that’s how I feel.”
Massiah, a registered Democrat who doesn’t feel tied to any party, wooed Biden with other politicians who made big promises but “forgot about you” when they took office. .
She was particularly dismayed by the lack of progress on racial issues. While she said many people have given up hope because Vice President Kamala Harris is a woman of color, “we are still being shot down by the police. We are still targeted when we go into stores. “
Massiah was exhausted.
“I’m just fed up. It’s really boring. ”
Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont of Des Moines, Iowa; Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta; Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix; Sam Metz of Carson City, Nevada .; and Jill Colvin of New York contributed to this report.
https://www.denverpost.com/2022/01/17/joe-biden-performance-reactions/ How did she do it? Americans weigh in on Biden’s performance. – The Denver Post
