This is an important data point for the big shift on Biden’s polling. Independent voters haven’t turned on Biden personally. (Republicans not employed by The Bulwark or the Lincoln Project obviously hate him, Democrats are steadfastly loyal to the party man.)

They’ve turned on the entire governing philosophy at the heart of his $3.5 trillion big government takeover. 

Americans have shifted back to favoring a more hands-off approach for government in addressing the nation’s problems after a rare endorsement of a more active role last year. Currently, 52% say the government is doing too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, while 43% want the government to do more to solve the country’s problems. In contrast, a record-high 54% of U.S. adults last year said the government should do more to solve problems.

What brought that Gallup number on? The pandemic.

The shift toward favoring a more active government role in 2020 was seen among Democrats and independents but not Republicans — Last year marked only the second time in Gallup’s 29-year trend that at least half of Americans endorsed an active role for the government on this item. The other pro-government response came in the weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks amid heightened concern about terrorism and a surge in trust in government.

The pandemic was seen by a lot of the country as a major emergency. The media sold the public on the idea that it needed total government management to cope with the crisis. But the crisis has stretched on indefinitely and the public sees no sign that the party that promised to fix everything is capable of doing anything except engaging in massive power grabs. The top political priorities of the Dems have been to federalize elections, prosecute Republicans, engage in endless impeachments, and pass massive pork bills and power grabs. Meanwhile vaccinated people have been told to wear masks and Fauci is on TV every day telling people what to do.

Americans weren’t happy with the situation in 2020. They’re even less happy now. They gave Biden and the Dems a shot. And…

All party groups are less likely now than a year ago to favor a more active government role, but independents’ opinions have changed the most. In 2020, 56% of independents wanted the government to do more to solve problems, compared with 38% now. Independents are even less inclined to want a more active government role today than they were in 2019 before the pandemic began, when 45% held that view.

Biden and the Dems didn’t just get independents to reset the clock to 2019, but pushed them back even further.

To some degree this is crisis fatigue. Which also set in after September 11. But a good deal of this is due to the naked greed and partisanship of the Dems which could have tried to pretend that they wanted to unify and lead during a crisis, but instead assumed that they now had absolute power and could do anything they wanted. It’s not just Manchin and Sinema warning them off.

Independents are turning on their entire approach in a big way. This has huge potential consequences beyond the next few elections.

Lefties keep promising that socialism is going to take over any day now. A lot of Americans don’t care about terms or ideology, but ask them a bottom-line question…

Given a choice, half of Americans say they prefer fewer government services and lower taxes, while 19% want higher taxes and more services. Twenty-nine percent want taxes and services as they are now.

In the five times Gallup has asked this question since 1993, the preference for lower taxes and fewer services has consistently prevailed, held either by pluralities or majorities of Americans, including a high of 56% in 2011. Only as many as 25%, in 2019, have said they wanted higher taxes and more services.

Currently, 77% of Republicans prefer fewer services and lower taxes, while 15% want no change and 7% prefer higher taxes and more services. Half of independents prefer lower taxes and fewer services, while 33% want to keep taxes and services where they are now and 16% want increases in both.

Democrats are mostly split between wanting more services and more taxes (37%) and keeping taxes and services where they are now (40%). Nineteen percent of Democrats prefer lower taxes and fewer services.

So much for that.