The latest NBC News poll finds that 71% of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Just 22% say we’re on the right track. Those are deeply concerning figures.

I have no doubt that Joe Biden’s incompetence as president on virtually every major issue — from Afghanistan to the border, COVID and the economy — is a major explanation for these dismal numbers. But I believe there are other problems the public senses, problems pollsters often ignore. For example:

Every year America is becoming less religious, more specifically less Christian. Every year, not coincidentally, we lose more freedom. Our founding fathers predicted this. They said only a moral and virtuous people could remain free.

A related trend is that fewer Americans are biblically literate. (For more on this subject, check out this recent presentation by Dr. George Barna with Foundations of Freedom.) At America’s founding, we were probably the most biblically literate society in the history of the world. But now, if the Bible is mentioned at all in our culture, it’s usually to condemn or mock it.

Every year, we become more diverse and we become more divided. Diversity can be good, if everyone agrees on the same set of fundamental values. But when diversity extends even to differences on fundamental beliefs on life and death, liberty and values, tribalism grows as there are fewer basic issues to unite us and Americans grow further apart.

There’s more, of course — the breakdown of the family, the coarsening of our culture, the decline of respect for law enforcement. But without the revival of faith, the renewal of Judeo-Christian values and a recommitment to basic morality, America will continue in the wrong direction.

Scary News

NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd said the new poll is full of “scary news for the Democrats.” Let me translate that for you: Democrat Chuck Todd is scared about the results of the poll, and he’s warning his liberal colleagues in the party to brace themselves. And there is a lot to digest.

• Biden’s approval rating is 12 points underwater — 42% approve; 54% disapprove.

• Only 37% have confidence that Biden can handle a crisis. No surprise there. He created the crisis at the border, he caused the crisis in Afghanistan and he’s done nothing to address the supply chain crisis.

• The Republican Party has major advantages over Democrats on a host of key issues: +27 on border security (build the wall); +24 on inflation (stop spending money we don’t have); +22 on crime (support the police); +21 on national security (America First); +18 on the economy (grow small businesses, not the government). In short, the public gives the party high marks on these issues, which were all top priorities of the Trump/Pence Administration, but are at the “back of the bus” in Joe Biden’s America.

Left-Wing Lies

Nothing is more dangerous to this country than race baiting — deliberately exploiting and inflaming racial discord. That’s why our enemies — communist China, Russia and Iran — constantly engage in it. And so did the Lincoln Project in Virginia.

The Lincoln Project started out as a group of failed Republican consultants who found left-wing millionaires and billionaires who were willing to fund their anti-Trump efforts. They are traitors to anything resembling conservative values. They should be called the John Wilkes Booth Project as they attempt to smear and destroy the Party of Lincoln.

Their latest disgusting effort to divide America was to send liberal activists dressed as white supremacists outside a Glenn Youngkin event as if they were supporters of his campaign. At the same time, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who is routinely portrayed as a moderate, is running ads attempting to link Youngkin to the 2017 Charlottesville riot.

Of course, the media’s knee-jerk reaction was exactly what was intended — to push the false narrative. But it quickly blew up as conservative media outlets exposed the truth.

Sadly, this is not an oddity. This is what the left routinely does. It continued over the weekend. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said that the Youngkin campaign is “harkening back” to the segregation era in Virginia. This is utter nonsense!

The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, is a black woman. The GOP nominee for attorney general, Jason Miyares, is Hispanic. Many of the parents supporting Youngkin’s campaign against critical race theory are notable because they are minorities who do not want their kids indoctrinated with radical left-wing Marxism.

But all the left has to offer is fear and division in its desperation to maintain power.

Deal Or No Deal

The House of Representatives is supposedly going to try again to pass a $1.2 trillion physical infrastructure bill and Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social bill sometime this week.

Initial reports indicated the votes would occur today, but the House Rules Committee canceled a meeting scheduled for yesterday to set up the parameters of the debate due to ongoing Senate negotiations over the social spending bill. That means Democrats are likely to take up the legislation in the aftermath of the Virginia elections.

If Democrats in Richmond have a good night tonight, Democrats on Capitol Hill will be emboldened. If Virginia Democrats have a bad night, it could cause a lot of Democrats in Congress to have second thoughts about another $3 trillion in spending.

House Republicans overwhelmingly oppose both bills. While roads and bridges are good investments, there’s a lot of left-wing garbage in the physical infrastructure bill. Moreover, the fortunes of both that bill and the $1.75 trillion social spending bill are tied together.

If the so-called physical infrastructure bill passes, it guarantees passage of the bigger, far worse social spending bill that Democrats can ram through on a party-line vote using the reconciliation process.

There are reports that some House Republicans may break ranks and vote for the “roads and bridges” bill. They are:

• Don Bacon (R-NE)

• Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)

• John Katko (R-NY)

• Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)

• Tom Reed (R-NY)

• Fred Upton (R-MI)

• Don Young (R-AK)

If these congressmen represent you, call them 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote “NO” on both massive Democrat spending bills.

No Republican should make Nancy Pelosi’s job any easier for her. Nor should they do anything that greases the skids for Biden’s $1.75 trillion big government obscenity that expands Obamacare, funds the Green New Deal and puts the IRS on steroids.

Manchin’s Moment

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin added more uncertainty to the mix yesterday when he called a press conference to “clarify” his position on the $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill. It wasn’t what many liberal Democrats wanted to hear.

Manchin told the House Progressive Caucus to stop “playing political games” with the infrastructure bill, saying, “Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill.”

As for the larger reconciliation bill that progressives are so desperate to pass, Manchin said that he would not “support a multi-trillion dollar bill without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects of inflation and debt on our economy.”

He also attacked the “shell games” and “budget gimmicks” that are being used to disguise the real costs of the reconciliation bill.

That said, he vowed to continue “negotiating in good faith” with Democrat leaders, adding, “I’m open to supporting a final bill that helps move our country forward. But I’m equally open to voting against a bill that hurts our country.”