USA: Better infrastructure, more approval?

US President Biden’s infrastructure package is supposed to bring roads, bridges and faster Internet. Does that help him out of the survey depth? In the state of Kentucky, many don’t believe the money will arrive.

The “Newby Country Store” is, as the name suggests, in the country. In rural Kentucky, to be precise. Owner Ashlie Hatton, like many here, is firmly Republican. However, she would like a better infrastructure: One of the three access roads into the village consists only of gravel, which she would like to see tarred. The Internet is slow or often non-existent. As soon as it storms or snows, the power goes out in many households because the masts buckle.

US President Joe Biden’s $ 1.2 trillion infrastructure package is also intended to help such rural regions – recently passed by the US Congress with votes from both parties. But Ashlie Hatton is skeptical: “In areas like ours, no money will arrive. It goes where many voters live. We are too insignificant here,” she says.

As you all think in the “Newby Country Store”: You see the high costs and do not expect any benefit. “The Democrats say the money is for roads,” says pensioner Don Long, speculating: “In the end, they’ll spend it on something else.” A guess that is not supported by anything. But: It is not yet clear where exactly the money should go, i.e. into which specific projects. Apparently that leaves room for speculation.

Louisville waits and doubts

Two hours by car to the west is Louisville – Kentucky’s largest metropolis, more democratic than republican. But here, too, many are worried: At the end of the day, we don’t get the money.

At least that’s what Nyree Clayton-Taylor thinks. The teacher now lives in a better part of Louisville, but in the West End, where the African American grew up, you can see decay everywhere. The poor, mostly black areas of the city in particular need better infrastructure. But will it come? She is skeptical about that.

In any case, other issues are more important to Clayton-Taylor when assessing President Biden’s first year in office. She and her husband Antonio spent many months on the streets – like so many in the country after multiple cases of police violence. In Louisville, it was the death of Breonna Taylor in a police operation that drove thousands onto the streets and left them to fight for more justice. Now there is a festively decorated Christmas tree on the central square in the center of Louisville. Only signs high up on the lampposts remind of the protests. The memorial for Breonna Taylor: relocated to a basketball court on the outskirts.

Biden’s unfulfilled promises

It was mainly black voters who voted in large numbers in 2020 and helped Biden win. Antonio Taylor has also mobilized voices among young blacks. “I told them: Go vote and we’ll get the change we so badly need,” he recalls. “There was so much positive energy there.”

Now Nyree and Antonio are bitterly disappointed. Police reform, electoral reform, reparation payments – Biden did not deliver any of these. “Almost nothing has changed for the better for us so far,” says Nyree. If it stays that way, she may not even vote in the next presidential election. And she is not alone with this attitude, as surveys show.

Defeat in the midterms foreseeable?

None of these are good news for Biden. So far, he has not delivered enough to his own followers. And what he has achieved he still has to sell the Americans as a success.

So have he already lost the mid-term elections next year? Not necessarily. On the one hand, these are traditionally always a vote on the incumbent president – and things are not looking good for the Democrats.

But on the other hand, it sometimes depends on the candidates on site. In Kentucky, for example, Democrat Charles Brooker is running for a Senate post. And he will get the votes of Nyree and Antonio Taylor – regardless of how many of his election promises President Biden has redeemed by then.

You can see these and other reports in Weltspiegel – on Sunday at 7:20 p.m. in Das Erste.