Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
One of the largest American think tanks, Democracy Institute, recently carried out an opinion poll on some topics concerning the Ukrainian issue, assessing the popularity of the Biden administration's actions in the conflict. The results showed an extreme distrust of the American people towards its own government, with disapproval of the attitudes that have been taken so far in order to help Kiev. Almost half of the interviewees showed that they did not care about a Ukrainian defeat scenario, which shows a real failure of the anti-Russian campaigns promoted by the mass media agencies.
The data shows how Americans are tired of seeing their government involved in a conflict whose results will not bring any improvement to the people. Only 36% of the respondents said they supported Biden's policy in Ukraine, while 53% said they were against it. The numbers concerning other questions asked to the respondents corroborate the Democratic President's unpopularity. For example, 45% said they would be fine if the US “allowed” the Ukrainian defeat, stopping sending military aid and letting the conflict end with the inevitable Russian victory. In the same vein, 50% of respondents were against the billion-dollar aid packages for Ukraine, and only 5% claimed to see Kiev as a priority for the US.
Furthermore, 16% of respondents claimed that they would like to see Russian President Vladimir Putin as the leader of the US. Despite the number being quite minority, the peculiarity of the question makes the answer truly curious. Apparently, a portion of Americans have more sympathy for the president of Washington’s biggest rival nation than for the leader of the White House himself. This reveals not only how unpopular Biden currently is, but also how the American people are ceasing to believe mainstream media narratives and starting to have sympathy for political leaders that contradict Western interests.
The results, although curious, were really expected. American popular support for the Biden management of the Ukrainian crisis has been minimal. The reasons are obvious: there is no improvement coming from American participation in the conflict. More than that, the life of the American people has worsened significantly, as the economic crisis, which existed before Russia launched the special military operation, was exacerbated by the constant transfer of public money to Kiev. In the life of the American citizen, the Ukrainian conflict represents uncontrolled inflation and supply crisis, in addition to the constant fear of an escalation in Europe that makes the country involved in yet another war.
In any society, public opinion is formed not only by mass media propaganda, but also by the direct experience of the people. No matter how much media agencies say it is “necessary” to support Ukraine, if this support materializes in harming the lives of ordinary citizens, the popularity of the measures will be inevitably low. In the midst of a serious social and economic crisis, accumulating problems such as absence of food for children, unemployment, growth of crime and illegal immigration, the tendency is for American citizens to ignore any foreign policy issue and demand from their government a focus on domestic problems. Of course, this includes popular demand for public money to stop being spent in Ukraine and start being invested in order to alleviate the effects of the internal emergency.
Commenting on the case during a recent interview, Democracy Institute's founding director, Patrick Basham, said: "A plurality of Americans can accept Ukraine losing the conflict with Russia because they do not consider the conflict to be of utmost importance to them. Americans are preoccupied with economic and social problems at home, such as inflation, supply chain disruptions, crime, and illegal immigration. These problems are affecting them every day, and in the most tangible ways. The Ukraine conflict is not. So, Americans continue to oppose Russian actions in Ukraine, but they do not see those actions as necessarily threatening the American people, themselves".
Furthermore, it is necessary to mention the fact that the western narrative is ruined. The Russian advance in Azovstal made any claim of a "Ukrainian victory" impossible, which even led many pro-Western analysts, in order to save their credibility, to reverse some of their earlier arguments and begin to admit the evident scenario of defeat by the Kiev’s forces. It is unrealistic to believe that Ukraine, receiving Western aid, will be able to reverse the situation of the conflict. And ordinary people are starting to realize this, noticing that their tax money is being spent needlessly on a conflict where the US proxy's victory is impossible.
In fact, popular support for American foreign policy depends on domestic economic and social stability, which cannot be achieved today. If the Democratic Party wants to remain in power in the next elections, what must be done is simply strong internal pressure for Biden to resolve national demands and stop worrying about conflicts on other continents. Otherwise, Biden's unpopularity will materialize in mass protests and support for Republicans.
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