Obama Turns a Deaf Ear to the American Public and Chases After Issues That Only Matter to Him and His Agenda

President Barack Obama is on the wrong side of nearly every single important issue.

Actually, he isn’t even in line with the American people on which issues are vital before he can be on the wrong side of them. If we had a federal government yearbook, and clearly we should, President Obama would be “Mr. Unpopular.”

Halfway through his second term, we have been treated to a host of issues that his administration has declared important. Immigration “reform,” gun control, birth control, income inequality, and my favorite, climate change (or climate chaos or maybe even climate kerfuffle at this point). These are the vital areas that need the attention, the pen and phone of the president.

President Barack Obama speaks about the economy, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

But do the the American people agree? No. There is only one issue mentioned above that is even in the top 10 for America at large – illegal immigration – and that is only because of the extraordinary circumstances at the border. Overall, there is a complete disconnect between the American public and President Obama regarding the issues that are the most important to address.

Even when we get to the single issue in common – illegal immigration – he is on the completely wrong side.

A recent poll found that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the way President Obama is handling illegal immigration. Not only that, but 59 percent think that the primary focus of any new immigration bill should be to send the young illegal immigrants home as soon possible, as opposed to the 27 percent who apparently agree with the administration and want them to remain. Going even further, a majority of Americans think that Central American countries should compensate us monetarily for the flood of people coming here illegally.

Obamacare is another area that the president is backwards in. The major health care legislation, the signature achievement of the president’s first term has never been very popular, and it still isn’t.

From Pew, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the law, with only 41 percent supporting it. The individual mandate fares no better with 53 percent opposition. In fact, 65 percent of Americans said that the law wouldn’t have passed if we knew in 2009 what we know now. That includes 54 percent of Democrats!

 US President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an Organizing for Action 'Obamacare Summit' at the St. Regis Hotel on November 4, 2013 in Washington, D.C. Pool/Getty Images

Perhaps large savings in health care costs would have helped out, but only 8 percent say that Obamacare has lowered their costs. Surely the law would garner more support if it signed up millions of people for health insurance plans, but unfortunately, 60 percent of Americans don’t even believe the administration and their enrollment numbers. To top it all off, Obamacare is the number one thing that Americans say they would undo from this presidency.

Ouch.

Unilateral and unconstitutional executive actions have been a major priority to this president as well. Americans, however, think poorly of this approach; 69 percent think that the president should work with Congress on what he finds important, with only 27 percent supporting the “pen and phone” approach. A majority of Americans, 55 percent, think that the government should only do what the president and Congress can agree on.

Then we get to the scandals that are still ongoing.

Despite President Obama’s assertion that they are nothing but “phony scandals,” the American public feels otherwise. A near majority of Americans feel that the Obama administration actually directed the Internal Revenue Service to target conservatives. Nearly 70 percent said that Obama has not followed up on investigating it properly, and 71 percent believe that the IRS deliberately destroyed e-mails to hide guilt.

When it comes to the VA, 80 percent hold this administration personally responsible.

The Benghazi attack? Nearly 60 percent believe that the administration is covering something up and a nearly identical percentage hold former former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama responsible for what happened. In every poll I found, the American public, by a majority, back the Congressional investigation into what really happened.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.  Credit: AFP/Getty Images

But surely he can find common ground with Americans on the climate kerfuffle, or whatever it is being called today. Well, not so much: 48 percent of Americans either believe that climate change doesn’t exist or that if it does, it is driven by natural causes. A majority of Americans think that climate change poses little to no threat at all, and out of all the issues that the president addressed in his State of the Union address, climate change was dead last in importance.

President Obama is completely upside-down in his stance on the Redskins' name, even in the nation’s capital. Seventy percent of Americans support voter ID laws, which includes a majority of black voters, yet this administration gets lawsuit happy whenever a state tries to enact them.

President Obama opposes the majority of Americans when he calls for stricter gun control laws, runs against a heavy majority on the Keystone pipeline, is on the wrong side of the Hobby Lobby decision, the wrong side of the moral question on abortion, and in the minority when he and Attorney General Eric Holder claim that racism is a big reason for opposition to either of them.

It doesn’t get any better when we leave the domestic confines and venture into foreign policy. Overall, nearly 60 percent of Americans believe that President Obama has failed to improve our international image.

When it comes to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only 39 percent approve of how Obama is handling the situation. This terrible approval stems from the fact that twice as many Americans blame Hamas for the violence than blame Israel. A strong majority say that Israel’s response is completely justified and 50 percent believe that the response has been about right or even not enough.

Pakistanis listen to President Barack Obama's speech at an electronic shop in Karachi, Pakistan on Thursday, June 4, 2009. Muslims see Obama's speech as a sign of shifting attitude toward them, new policy on Middle East. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

When it comes to the Middle East, an easy majority of people disapprove of how the president is handling the situation in Iraq, he is upside-down in his approval rating for Iran, and in a poll that shocked me, more Americans believe that the terrorists are winning the war on terror rather than the U.S., and they believe it by a wide margin.

Even separated from specific issues, he is sinking in nearly every poll out there. Americans don’t think he can lead the country, say that he lies about important matters, aren’t exactly interested in voting for him again, don’t like him personally and even say he is the worst president since World War II.

That is a lot of polls, and that is a lot of issues to be on the wrong side of. While this exploration of polls should give you a clear indication about how wrong the president is about so many issues, it should also tell you this: The Republicans have been absolutely horrendous on seizing the majorities and running with them.

With a clear and unified vision that lays out a principled direction for the country to go in, the Republicans should be swimming in votes right now. President Obama may be “Mr. Unpopular” - and boy, is he ever - but until the Republicans can agree on and articulate a positive, future-focused vision and plan, they aren’t about to be “most likely to succeed.”

For other articles and writings by Darrell, please visit the Milk Crate.

–

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.