When Ronald Reagan won reelection, it was about 11.4; when George W. Bush did so it was 9; for Barack Obama it was 9.5; and today, as Joe Biden runs for reelection, it’s only 7.7.
This is not just coincidence. It’s a direct outcome of Biden polices: The Inflation Reduction Act, with its green technology provisions, the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act. As the maestro political analyst Charlie Cook noted in 2020, on average, presidents tend to lose their reelection bids when about 70% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, and they tend to win when fewer than half of Americans think that.
Part of it is the media. A recent study found that over the past couple of decades headlines have grown starkly more negative, conveying anger and fear. That’s bound to spread bad vibes through the populace.