On the strength of rising polls just over two months before the mid-term elections, Joe Biden called on Thursday, August 25, for Americans to vote en masse for the Democratic Party in the legislative elections in November, denouncing in passing the “semi-fascism” of the most radical Republicans.
During a fundraiser in Maryland, the 79-year-old president harshly criticized the most radical fringe of the conservative camp. “What we are witnessing today is either the birth or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy [l’acronyme MAGA faisant référence au slogan emblématique de Donald Trump, « Make America Great Again »]. It’s not just Trump, it’s a whole philosophy (…). It’s like semi-fascism”he said at this event, in the inner suburbs of Washington.
Later, speaking at a nearby Democratic Party campaign rally, he said: “You must vote to literally save democracy again”. If opinion polls are always to be taken with a grain of salt, the trend that has emerged for about a month in favor of the Democratic camp seems clear.
Favorable polls
According to the FiveThirtyEight site, which aggregates polls, voters wishing for a Democratic victory in the midterm elections were even on August 24 a little more numerous (44%) than those hoping for a Republican success (43.6%). We are far from « red wave » (the color of the conservative party) still considered at the beginning of the summer, when high inflation seemed to destroy the chances of the president and his party.
The victory on Tuesday August 23 of a Democrat in a hotly contested district of New York State was seen as an additional indication of the trend reversal. And some commentators are now wondering if Joe Biden – whose popularity rating is also going up – will not prove electoral history wrong. Traditionally, the president’s party loses these elections, which renew all the seats in the House of Representatives and thirty-five of the hundred seats in the Senate.
The most important factor in this new momentum owes nothing to Joe Biden, quite the contrary: it is the end of the constitutional right to abortion, decided at the end of June by the very conservative Supreme Court shaped by Donald Trump. While a majority of Americans are in favor of the right to abortion, the Democrats are determined to make this question a central issue in the ballot.
Joe Biden has once again promised that in the event of a victory in November, the Democrats would enshrine the right to abortion in a federal law, which would be binding on conservative states that have already banned or severely limited abortion.
Feverish Republicans
The party can also rely on advances in the presidential program, in particular the vote for gigantic spending in favor of the fight against climate change and for technological innovation. “It is undeniable that the legislative gains are piling up for President Biden and that this is reviving the Democratic Party”commented lobbyist Jonathan McCollum, who has worked on a number of campaigns.
Not to mention other strong announcements, whether it’s the death of the leader of Al-Qaeda following an American strike or the partial cancellation of student debt. On the economic front, inflation is showing signs of slowing, while the labor market remains buoyant.
A recent highly commented poll, revealed by the NBC channel, even indicates that the first concern of voters would now be “The Dangers to Democracy”in front of the cost of living – enough to further fuel the hopes of the Democrats, while the supporters of the former president continue to claim that Joe Biden has ” Fly “ the last presidential election.
The Republicans, they show signs of feverishness. Their leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, believes that the Conservative Party has only a one in two chance of capturing a majority in the upper house of Congress. Donald Trump, who does not carry Mitch McConnell in his heart, issued a particularly virulent press release on Wednesday, calling him a « pion » in the service of the Democrats.