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The
finding echoes concerns raised by moderate Democratic members of
Congress whose seats the party will have to defend in the Nov. 8
election if it wants to keep its majorities. They said the party
has paid too much attention to its failures and not enough to
successes like the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in
November.
The poll, conducted online Jan. 31-Feb. 8, found 28% of
Democrats said their party was unable to get things done last
year because they were too busy fighting each other or lacked
resolve. Forty-seven percent blamed Republicans for blocking
Democratic efforts and only 25% said the party had been able to
accomplish most of its goals.
The finding illustrates a dissatisfaction among Democratic
voters. Some 55% of Democrats said they were certain to vote in
November, lower than the 59% of Republicans who said that, a
statistically meaningful gap in a narrowly-divided electorate.
The disappointment among Democrats underscores a risk for
President Joe Biden. If his party cannot close the enthusiasm
gap, its turnout could suffer in November, raising the risk of
losing its slim congressional majorities and dooming his
legislative agenda.
"When you have a quarter of your own party conceding that we
didn't get things done and it was mostly our fault, that's a
problem," said Daron Shaw, an expert on polling and elections at
the University of Texas at Austin.
Biden's approval rating https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa
among all Americans is currently hovering near the lowest level
of his presidency at 43%.
Democratic voters said they were disappointed the party failed
to deliver on high-level priorities like Biden's $1.75 trillion
"Build Back Better" social spending bill or to pass sweeping
voter rights reform. Both those bills faced solid Republican
opposition in the 50-50 Senate and two critical conservative
Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who
rejected top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer's proposed maneuvers
to pass them. "He hasn't done anything near what he promised,"
said Paul Sansing, 29, a band and orchestra teacher in Cygnet,
Ohio, who voted for Biden in 2020 but says he was let down on
climate change and will be open to third-party congressional
candidates.
Physician Sanjay Krishnan said elderly, white Democratic leaders
like Biden haven't taken seriously enough Republican-led efforts
to put restrictions on voting that advocates say could
disenfranchise minorities. Krishnan said he would rather not
vote than support a Democrat who only pays lip services to his
concerns.
"If the Democratic candidates don't follow through on their
promises, why should I put in the effort to go vote for them?"
said Krishnan, 44, of Manchester, New Hampshire.
Reuters/Ipsos polls are conducted online, in English, throughout
the United States. The latest large-sample survey was conducted
from Jan. 31-Feb. 8 and gathered responses from 4,404 adults
including 2,015 Democrats, 1,663 Republicans and 510
independents. The results have a credibility interval, a measure
of precision, of between 2 and 5 percentage points.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair
Bell)
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