Why Is Biden Successful? Because Americans Trust Him

The President has a unique relationship with voters who aren't solid red Republicans. They trust Biden, and that is why he is successful.

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Trust Is A Defining Factor In Presidential Success

Trust is one of those elements of the presidency necessary for any successful president, but it has become more difficult to measure. The presidency as an office and an institution have tremendous power, but the character of the person in the Oval Office determines how and where that power is used.

A president who does not have a relationship of trust with the American people will almost certainly fail.

Recent American history is full of examples that illustrate the value of trust.

Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are the two examples in the modern era of presidents who voters trusted and that led to successful two-term transformative presidencies.

Voters elected then lost trust in Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush and each was denied a second term.

Bill Clinton is an example of how voters personally trusted him enough to look past the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment. While Clinton doesn’t have the lasting legacy of Reagan or Obama, he was a successful two-term president.

George W. Bush’s presidency was a unique case because of 9/11, and post-attack patriotism carried him to reelection. Voter trust in help fell apart early in his second term, and there are few arguments that the George W. Bush presidency was successful.

No modern president came into office with a bigger trust deficit than Trump, who made things worse with voters while in office, never had a single day of his presidency over 50% approval, and seemed destined to be a one-term president.

As the nation has become more partisan, public opinion polling on presidential trust has become another metric for measuring our degree of partisanship instead of actual trust in a president.

Trust is no longer easy to measure but still vital for a president to have.

All of this brings us to the current president Joe Biden and why one of the keys to his political success is inherent trust.