How Donald Trump and COVID Destroyed the Democratic Party
The year 2021 was clarifying for many Americans, and one clear loser was the Democratic Party.
Former President Donald Trump and COVID-19 deserve a lion’s share of the credit for the downfall.
How the coronavirus damaged the Democrats, particularly over this past year, may seem self-evident, but how did Trump? He’s not even in office anymore.
Here’s the answer: He showed what competent leadership looks like, whether it be on the economy, COVID, border security or foreign policy.
If Trump hadn’t governed so effectively, the contrast between Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican predecessor would not be so pronounced and the dissatisfaction of the American people so profound.
Perhaps if Biden had followed a Jimmy Carter, a Herbert Hoover or even a Barack Obama rather than Trump, the Democrats might not be in the spot they’re in now.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls for the direction of the country shows over 65 percent believe America is on the wrong track. In May, less than 50 percent held that view.
A Fox News poll published over the weekend found six in 10 voters would not vote for Biden if the 2024 general election were held now.
His whole party is in trouble.
A Gallup survey released last week showed a 14-point swing in favor of Republican Party affiliation, giving the GOP its greatest advantage over the Democrats since 1991.
Gallup: In 2021, GOP went from a 9 point deficit in party identification to a 5 point lead
Party Affiliation Trends: Q1 2021
DEM: 49% (+9)
GOP: 40%
IND: 10% (no lean)Quarter 4 2021 Party Affiliation
GOP: 47% (+5)
DEM: 42%
IND: 9% pic.twitter.com/dGBhBMNhuM— InteractivePolls (@PollsandOdds) January 17, 2022
A red wave is forming that is likely to sweep many Democrats out of office in November.
Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the governor’s race and the GOP’s flipping of the House of Delegates in Virginia — a state Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020, mind you — is just one example from November’s off-year elections that signaled challenging midterms for the Democrats.
Trump and the Republicans implemented policies that worked.
Their economic policies led to the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, including records lows for Hispanics, African-Americans, women and most other demographics.
Meanwhile, median household income rose to the highest ever recorded in 2019, approximately $65,000, which was up over $4,100 since Trump had taken office just two-and-a-half years before versus just $1,000 for the seven-and-a-half years following the end of the recession in June 2009, according to Americans for Tax Reform.
Further, the poverty rate fell to 10.5 percent in 2019, the lowest since the Census Bureau began tracking the statistic in 1959, CNN reported.
All this was accomplished while keeping inflation hovering around a low 2 percent annually.
By contrast, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the price of consumer goods rose 7 percent in 2021 under Biden, a 40-year high.
The Fox poll found that 85 percent of those surveyed are worried about inflation — the top concern among respondents — and 48 percent believe that Biden’s policies, not COVID, are the primary reason for the spike in prices.
The nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021, extended enhanced unemployment benefits until September of last year and upped the child “tax credit” to as high as $300 per month, per child.
Both of these policies were inflationary because they incentivized people not to go back to work, meaning employers had to raise wages to try to fill positions, hence higher prices for the consumer.
In addition, people had a lot of printed and borrowed government money to spend.
More dollars chasing fewer goods and services equals inflation.
In the Fox survey, Biden was underwater in his handling of the economy (41 percent approve to 58 percent disapprove), COVID (46 to 52 percent), border security (37 to 59 percent) and foreign policy (41 to 54 percent).
The contrast between Trump and Biden could not be greater.
The economic differences have already been discussed.
With COVID, Trump initiated “Operation Warp Speed” to develop vaccines while also pursuing therapeutics and trusting the American people ultimately to make their own health decisions.
Democratic governors aggressively instituted prolonged lockdowns, while Biden has sought to impose oppressive vaccine mandates, which have hampered economic recovery.
Republican-led states have set the pace for the entire country in restoring what was lost.
Four red states have recovered all the jobs they lost during the coronavirus pandemic and then some, while large blue states — such as New York and California — continue to lag far behind the national average.
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates all have Republican governors.
Meanwhile, the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates, save Alaska, are all Democrat-led.
Regarding the border, Trump built more than 500 miles of wall, initiated the “Remain in Mexico” policy and negotiated asylum agreements with Central American counties.
Biden ended all these policies and sparked the worst border crisis in decades, with more than 1.7 million apprehensions in fiscal year 2021. By comparison, there were about 458,000 in fiscal 2020.
BREAKING: CBP finally releases December migrant encounter numbers at Southern border.
178,840.
The first 3 months of FY’22 have already seen 518,370 encounters.
That’s more than *double* first 3 months of FY’21. (218,306), which was the highest on record at the time.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/YjkRUpyFcl— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) January 24, 2022
Concerning foreign policy, “America first” and “peace through strength” guided Trump’s decisions.
The result was the world experienced relative peace.
Under Biden, we’ve seen the disastrous fall of Afghanistan and an emboldened Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears poised to invade Ukraine or extract major concessions from the West because he has no fear of Biden.
Why should he?
The Obama-Biden administration did nothing when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, and Biden all but gave Putin the green light last week to enter Ukraine.
Biden eked out a win in 2020 with promises of a kinder, gentler, more unified country and a pledge to “shut down the virus.”
He has achieved neither, but he has managed to highlight how competent Trump was, while COVID has shown the Republicans to be the party of liberty and Democrats the party of mandates and lockdowns.
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