Gigi Holmes was in the right place, at the right time, on US Presidential Election Day on November 3 last year, when then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden sought ultimate inspiration from his childhood home. . It was in Scranton, north of Philadelphia.
On one of the walls of the living room, in the presence of a few close friends and the new owners of the premises, the politician wrote in black pencil: “From this house to the White House, with the grace of God. Then he signed.
Gigi Holmes, an immediate neighbor, was there with her camera. She immortalized the moment which is now part of history.
“The gesture brought him luck,” says the professional photographer, whom she met in her studio in this small town in Pennsylvania last week. “In the days that followed, he was elected president”, thus preventing Donald Trump from winning a second term and promising millions of Americans the return of a calmer, more reasoned, more inclusive and above all less hateful policy in Washington .
A prospect which, a year later, is now viewed with increasingly disappointed hope, but also with many doubts.
“It’s still shit here,” smiles Don Griffin, a retiree from the world of finance cross in the Chase Center on the Riverfront neighborhood, the conference center of Wilmington, Delaware, home of Joe Biden. , from where the president gave his victory speech a year ago. “Expectations were high, but the country still remains deeply divided. Our policy still follows ideological fraction lines that no longer allow us to see what is good for the country. It’s a shame. And Joe Biden, now president, is paying the price. “
Since last August, the trend has been measured almost weekly in opinion polls, which show a plummeting level of American approval of the president’s job. Between 50 and 55% of those polled now give him a thumbs up, which is, after almost 10 months of effective power in the White House, one of the highest levels of dissatisfaction for a president at this stage. a presidency since 1945, Gallup pointed out at the end of October.
The decline began last August, fueled in part by the resumption of the pandemic, amplified, yes, by the fanciful handling of the health crisis by the previous government, but which the Democrat’s team was not in. able to put in a less deleterious framework. Despite its promises.
The number of deaths is now approaching the 750,000 Americans mark, in a country where 20% of the population still refuses vaccination. There is also strong opposition to health measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19, primarily in Republican-led states.
The migration crisis on the southern border of the country as well as the chaotic withdrawal of the American armed forces from Afghanistan, under the triumphant return of the Taliban, have also reinforced negative feelings towards the president, who is questioned in his role of commander-in-chief of the armies by 58% of Americans, according to a recent survey by Quinnipiac University. Barely 42% of those questioned now deem its government competent, with, to top it all off brutally, a rapid decline in its support within the so-called independent electorate. He is the one who decides the results in states like Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania or Nevada, states that opened the doors to the White House in Biden last year. Now, less than 32% say they are with him.
On Tuesday evening, the president also had a foretaste of the effects of these headwinds, which blew over Virginia where, for the first time in 10 years, voters gave back the keys of the state to a governor. Republican: Glenn Youngkin. He was supported and dubbed by former President Donald Trump.
Joe Biden won the Virginian ‘Commonwealth’ in 2020 with a 10 point lead over the populist.
Democrats avoided the same affront in New Jersey, where Democratic Governor Phil Murphy won his bet to be re-elected, not without being endangered, more than usual in this rather blue state, by the Republican. Jack Ciattarelli.
Promises hard to keep
The first months of the Biden era thus seem laborious, and this, moreover, not surprisingly for the political scientist Daniel Chomsky of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “All his promises ultimately depended on one: the one that he would bring back inter-party cooperation to Washington,” he said. However, this is the fantasy that has not come true. “
The tense discussions that have been going on for weeks on Capitol Hill to get American deputies and senators to adopt the president’s ambitious program to improve the country’s infrastructure, combat climate change and lay the foundations of a net social almost non-existent in this country, give the full measure of the impasse. On the one hand, a bloc of elected Republicans is determined to block their projects, without even wanting to discuss them. And in the Democratic camp, two elected officials – Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona – have been playing spoilers for weeks, taking advantage of the tiny majority of the Democratic Party carried by the vice-president’s vote. in an upper house divided 50/50 to claim power. They seek to impose a more conservative vision by calling for the size of the train of planned measures to be reduced.
“The electoral process is based on the goodwill of elected officials”, summarized Marty, 79, met Wednesday morning in front of the White House, on Pennsylvania Avenue, where he comes every week, sign in hand, his point of view on the present : Hate won’t make America great. Hate will not make America great. “However, cooperation is impossible without communication and especially with a conservative ideology which is now defended with stubbornness and violence. “
Forgotten successes
The ground is mined, but it did not prevent Joe Biden from securing some victories, however, recalls David Redlawsk, a fine observer of American political psychology at the University of Delaware. “Nine months is short, but it was enough to allow him to pass a bill aimed at stimulating the country’s economic recovery,” he said. The budget plan, passed in March, was US $ 1.9 trillion and included a significant child tax credit. “But, yes, he still has significant challenges to overcome. “
“A rescue plan adopted in March, two plans of 1200 billion and 1800 billion on the rails for infrastructure and to rebuild the country better, I call it a success,” says John K. White, specialist in the American policy at the Catholic University of America, Washington. That’s more than what Roosevelt and Johnson together came up with in their first year of presidency. But Biden must come forward with a much different majority than Roosevelt and Johnson had in Congress. Which actually complicates things a bit. “
A complexity that is not always grasped by American citizens, who are unfamiliar with the mechanics of powers and the tectonics of influences in Washington and which now feeds disillusionment. After the many promises that have been made, the electorate concretely wants to see more achievements.
“For the moment, I see that my life today is not as good as it was before, under the other presidency,” says Gigi Holmes, speaking of the increase in the price of gasoline, of the breakdown in supply chains and inflation, which she says she sees every day in her business and in her daily life.
“Biden and the Democrats face a high risk of having their actions deemed insufficient,” says Daniel Chomsky. The president must now act boldly to prevent his programs from becoming smaller, less progressive and less committed to effective environmental protection. Especially since social spending in current legislation is still relatively meager, representing about a fifth of current US military spending on an annual basis, ”he adds. He concluded: “This government must quickly bring real and significant social benefits. Otherwise, he will suffer the consequences. “
These reports were partially funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.