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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 10, 2024

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if you look at 538, Biden's approval nosedived around mid-2021 fror reasons that are not clear and never budged,

Afghanistan. My recollection is this shattered a consensus support, and he never recovered.

Not Afghanistan. US voters aren't that affected by foreign policy unless US bodies are involved. Inflation. Prices went up fast, gas prices went WAY up, and all the reports from the Federal Reserve saying everything's fine can't offset that.

"Transitory"

I'd normally ignore or warn low-effort one-liners, but you don't appear to have taken the hint from the last four.

I suppose I'll move on to a one day ban.

The Afghanistan withdrawal was a debacle and I think even "normal" people were put off by how it ended. Afghanistan was a going concern for twenty years, then we pull out, American efforts are immediately undone, the Taliban starts waving around American weapons.

I don't think the average voter "cares" in the sense that Afghanistan will decide their votes. But the whole incident shattered Biden's image in a way that broke some necessary myths. After Afghanistan lots of people started criticizing Biden regularly over other shortcomings. Hence, his approval dropped, and never recovered.

Yeah I think that is right. Biden campaigned on “the adults are back in charge.” He then had a Saigon moment shattering the idea the adults are in charge.

If it was just Afghanistan, he’d be fine. But it opened him to criticism and he has continued to step into it.