The current administration can see some of what the people have to tell them with surprising ease, yet the information they are given is largely ignored. The president has an Instagram page that posts on things like Easter egg hunts but doesn’t seem to pay any attention to the responses received. The President has faced increasingly clear public rebuke since the events of Oct. 7, and it appears his campaign is unprepared for the votes his position will cost him.
The Biden Administration is embarrassingly out of touch with what the people of this country want. Many Democratic voters, including the ones who voted him into office in the first place, are hesitating to vote for him in the coming election, even when the alternative winner is likely former President Donald Trump. Despite evidence to the contrary, the current administration seems to think this is enough of a deterrent to guarantee their votes in November, as it helped them in 2020. Currently, Biden’s polling numbers are trailing behind Trump’s in six out of seven key states.
Polls for the upcoming election versus polls from the same date of 2020 show a major shift in voter opinion. Where Biden was leading by a 6.1% margin at the start of May 2020, the same date in 2024 shows Trump in a 0.8% lead. A March 2024 poll done by National Public Radio (NPR), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and Marist determined that 61% of young adults aged 18 to 29 disapprove of how well of a job Biden is currently doing as president. A whopping 36% of them say they strongly disapprove. Despite all this, Biden hasn’t made any clear effort to change his current stances or respectfully acknowledge youth voters on some of his presidency’s most decisive and contested issues.
It should also be noted that most people using social media to attempt communication with the administration are the age groups Biden counted on to be elected into the White House in 2020. Especially as a largely democratic group of the younger generation has turned old enough to vote this election, there should be no taking for granted the impact of younger generations’ vote, which he is counting on again this year.
Animosity grew after the White House Correspondents Dinner, where the President stood before a screen that read “Celebrating the First Amendment.” The caption reads, “Last night we toasted to a free press, to an informed citizenry, and to an America where freedom and democracy endure.” Users chimed in with comments pointing out the hypocrisy in the President’s actions after the recent TikTok ban, which many interpret as a deliberate action to stifle free speech. This critique largely comes from young adults, who are the largest contributors to TikTok usage.
It is becoming harder and harder for many of the people who would have fought for Biden to win to advocate for him in this election. Many of them have been vocal about multiple issues that Biden directly had a hand in and were disappointed in the outcome. The Willow Project in March of 2023 is an excellent example. The proposed oil drilling project was largely objected to, and the Change.org petition gathered over three million signatures. However, permission for the project was still given, and the public’s views were largely ignored by the Biden administration.
It’s time for the Biden administration to stop ignoring and limiting the people’s voices. Otherwise, there’ll be far more conflicts closer to home as soon as the beginning of next year, in a way no one in this country won’t regret.
