Joe Biden just can’t win. I refer not to the presidential election, which is still 11 months away, but to his supporters’ predisposition for dissatisfaction.
Consider the president’s student-loan forgiveness plan, which — regardless of its merits, or lack thereof — is at least in part intended to help him appeal to younger Americans. Yet according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, a plurality of Gen Z voters in swing states says he is doing too little. A plurality of all voters in swing states, meanwhile, says he is doing too much.
This is representative of the larger dynamic that has currently marooned the president with historically bad approval ratings. On many issues, he has made meaningful policy change in a progressive direction — often at the cost of alienating more moderate voters. At the same time, he is beset by progressive advocacy groups and media voices complaining that he hasn’t done enough.
To an extent, that’s just how it goes in a pluralistic democracy. There are 335 million Americans, and it’s hard to imagine any president taking any position on any issue that wasn’t too right-wing for millions of people and too left-wing for millions of others. Winning an election necessarily means winning the votes of lots of people who don’t fully agree with you.
Yet what’s striking about this political moment is that Biden’s presumptive opponent, former President Donald Trump, is widely described as an existential threat to American democracy. Under those circumstances, you might think liberal voters would take a more forgiving attitude.