Joe Biden’s popularity

As a Democrat who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, I would wait in line for hours to cast a vote for a Republican ticket with Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) and former congresswoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.).

Memo to Benjamin Franklin: We might yet be unable to keep the republic, but we have developed really impressive, old, self-centered politicians, in case that is any consolation.

David McAuley, McLean

The Dec. 18 front-page article “Biden upset by his low polling” described President Biden questioning his staff about why his polling is so low. One Democratic strategist said,“Some of our coalition is wandering, and we need to go get them back.” TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said, “We are methodically and strategically building the infrastructure we’ll need to activate the broad and diverse coalition of voters that sent Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris to the White House.”

I learned that one reason Mr. Biden is polling so low is that many White middle-class voters feel excluded from this too-oft-mentioned “coalition.” I recently asked voters in Southwest Pennsylvania, where I once served on the Democratic State Committee, who they thought made up the “Biden coalition.” Almost all responses included Black people, Hispanics, LGBTQ+ people and liberals. Few of them mentioned the White middle class. After watching Mr. Biden and his surrogates on television, most felt they are no longer a priority of “middle-class Joe.”

Conor Lamb, who represented that same area of Pennsylvania in Congress, said, “I think a lot of activists feel that everyone they know is happy with the president. They’re not understanding who is in the majority of the country that is dissatisfied and what to do to change their minds.”

For Mr. Biden to win, the Biden campaign needs to take the term “coalition” out of its vocabulary and run a public campaign that doesn’t make any group of voters feel less important than others.

Tom Stillitano, Haymarket

President Biden’s frustration with his poll numbers is long overdue. Though his accomplishments and policies have had success and significant impact, the public, in general, remains oblivious. I would suggest this is largely a result of the narrow vision of his advisers who do not know how to communicate, do not respond to the siege of slanderous Republican lies and, for the most part, preach to the converted, not to the electorate at large.

When the Biden campaign learns to make clear just how most Republican policies affect every individual personally and how Democratic policies provide an opportunity to move each individual forward, poll numbers will improve. The electorate must be supported to move away from the fears infused by Republican propaganda and consider what they would do without health care, Social Security and many public programs that support their well-being and that are under attack by the Republican Party.

Gentility, rationality and reasoned argument — long mainstays of the Democratic Party — are not the only methods for communication and certainly not those most effective in the days of social media.

Bryan Lees, Montclair, N.J.