Joe Biden is the most unpopular president in modern history at this point in his presidency. His approval rating currently stands at 39.1% (as of March 29, 2024), below Trump with 45.7% approval at this point in 2020, below Richard Nixon at 53.4% and below even Jimmy Carter at 43.4%. Unless he steps down and allows someone else to run who can actually beat Donald Trump in November, Joe Biden is basically handing the White House back to Trump.
Where does Joe Biden stand on the two existential threats facing us today?
Climate
Biden gave us hope that things would change, but is not doing nearly enough to prevent climate catastrophe.
Biden, together with a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2021-2022, passed some important pieces of legislation that include huge investments in clean energy and other steps towards address the climate crisis. But these fall far short of what is needed, and include some backward steps that not even Trump was able to accomplish. These include:
- Increased drilling for oil and gas on federal lands and off-shore, including on protected wildlife refuges.
- Increased fracking and pipeline construction across the country.
- Increased subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, including efforts to revive the coal industry.
- Reduction of subsidies and incentives for solar and wind projects, electric cars, battery storage and clean energy research.
- Further lowering and elimination of emission standards for cars, power plants and industry.
- Increasing, instead of decreasing, carbon emissions from the U.S.
- Meager assistance in helping less wealthy countries to make the necessary changes to address climate change.
Nuclear weapons
Biden signed an extension to the NewSTART Treaty on his first day in office, but has done literally nothing else to lessen the danger of nuclear war since then.
We have survived this far without a nuclear war by luck and for no other reason. Sooner or later, our luck is going to run out. But instead of seriously addressing this existential threat to humanity, President Biden has recklessly pursued policies which risk:
- Increasing chance of war with Iran, which could end up involving the use of nuclear weapons, engulf the whole Middle East region and lead to global repercussions.
- Increasing chance of war with North Korea, which would almost certainly involve nuclear weapons, cause huge casualties and destruction not only in North Korea but also in South Korea and Japan.
- Deployment of formerly banned missiles back in Europe, which could lead to a huge back-lash in Europe and the break-up of NATO.
- Nuclear arms race with Russia, costing trillions more than the trillions already allocated for nuclear weapons development.
- Increasing risk of nuclear launch by accident or miscalculation, with the “doomsday clock” moving closer and closer to midnight.
- Increasing risk of nuclear confrontation with China.
- Risking collapse of the global non-proliferation regime, leading to more countries deciding to develop their own nuclear weapons.