Polls have shown that majorities of voters ― even Republican ones ― like Biden’s policies and like the president personally. His coronavirus policies have been overwhelmingly popular, and voters like his ideas for an infrastructure and jobs overhaul. The president’s overall approval rating stands at just 53%, however, with voters giving him the strongest marks on the pandemic and the economy, according to a recent Monmouth University poll. Another reason why Biden may not face as much resistance as Obama did is the fact that he’s a white man in his 70s who has been in the public spotlight for decades. The Tea Party movement was fueled by race as much as economics ― a trend that continued into the Trump years. The election of a Black president for the first time in U.S. history galvanized a segment of the Republican Party, leading to the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., a false notion that eventually put Trump, a top birther, into the Oval Office. The biggest obstacle to the rise of another conservative political movement may be Trump, who as president repeatedly prodded his party to embrace higher government spending. The former president continues to suck up oxygen among the right, dangling endorsements to 2022 candidates and issuing threats to campaign against Republicans who crossed him in the past. On Thursday, Trump even called for the ouster of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a threat that may not faze McConnell but likely does other Republican lawmakers and prospective candidates.