The media’s cheering of President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to call for national unity in his inaugural address is missing one thing: Republicans.
Still stung by President Trump’s loss and years of dismissal by Democrats, a tiny 2% of Republicans told Georgetown University’s Battleground pollsters that Biden will be “very successful” in his unity drive.
And not one single Republican told Republican pollster Ed Goeas and Democratic pollster Celinda Lake that Biden will be “extremely successful” at restoring unity and civility.
Overall, 79% think just the opposite, that he will fail.
The details of the partisanship greeting Biden were in a memo from Lake that accompanied the “Civility Poll” from the school’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.
In the general poll write-up, it appeared that the public is cautiously optimistic about Biden’s effort.
The release said, “Just one week ahead of the Biden-Harris Inauguration (with its stated theme of ‘America United’), more than half (56%) of Americans are at least somewhat optimistic President-elect Joe Biden can restore civility and unity in our politics, an issue at the forefront of his campaign.”
But the details in the Lake memo, co-written with Daniel Gotoff, Sandra Markowitz, and McCauley Pugh, showed the division Biden faces. Add white voters to the skeptical, it added.
“There is a large party divide on the issue and optimism follows the vote. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans predict that Biden will be not at all successful, 17% say he will be somewhat successful, and only 2% say he will be very successful (no Republicans believe Biden will be extremely successful at restoring unity and civility). Independents are slightly more hopeful, with 47% believing Biden will be at least somewhat successful, and 42% believing will not be successful at all. Democrats are by far the most optimistic, as over half (51%) predict that Biden will be extremely or very successful, 42% say he will be somewhat successful, and only 5% say he will not be at all successful.”
“Men are less hopeful on this question (50% say that he will not be at all successful) compared to women (33% say the same). Age is the one pattern that does not follow the vote. Along generational lines, seniors are most optimistic about Biden’s ability to restore unity and civility — only 35% say he will not be at all successful,while nearly a third (31%) say he will be extremely/very successful. Among voters 18-44, 56% anticipate success on this score compared to 40% who predict failure. Similarly, among voters 45-64, 53% believe Biden will successfully restore unity and civility compared to 46% who feel otherwise. White voters (the bulk of the passing administration’s supporters) are most likely to say Joe Biden will not be successful at all (47%), while only 11% of black voters and 25% of Latino voters say the same,” said the memo.
Biden, however, may have someplace to start in building unity. The same poll found that 92% would like to see the new president and Congress work together. And that includes 87% of the GOP.
