RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR.: There was no red wave in the midterms

After a round of elections, it’s natural for journalists and pundits to look for trends and try to connect dots. But when the dots they’re trying to connect are miles apart, this no longer qualifies as political analysis. It morphs into political spin.

Now that the midterm elections are behind us, Americans are being encouraged by the liberal media to believe two things: that Republicans did worse than expected in large part because President Joe Biden did a great job marshaling support for Democrats and that, because Democrats dodged a bullet, Biden’s standing with voters has improved so much that more of them want him to run for re-election.

The day after the elections, an article in The Washington Post began this way: “Tuesday’s midterm election results gave President Biden a much-needed political boost, as his party’s better-than-expected performance enabled him to avoid a damaging setback and tamped down Democratic calls for him to consider ending his presidency after one term.”

This month, an article in Newsweek referred to a CNN poll, taken after the midterms, that supposedly showed a “surge” in Biden’s job approval rating. In that poll, 46 percent of respondents approved of Biden’s performance in office while 54 percent disapproved.

It’s true that there has been some improvement. In a CNN poll from October, just 41 percent of respondents approved of the job that Biden was doing as president and 59 percent disapproved.

But the president’s “boost” was just 5 percentage points. That’s not enough to change the fact that his approval rating is still underwater. So much for what Newsweek generously called a “surge.”

Here’s the real story: No matter what we’re hearing from the media, there is only scattered evidence that Biden is in a much stronger position with voters after the midterm elections. There is also little evidence that, if he is politically better off today than he was a few months ago, it’s because of the outcome of the midterms.

Those dots don’t connect. No matter how badly some Democrats would like them to.

Usually, while Republicans fall in line, Democrats tend to fall apart.

Today, the opposite dynamic is at work. As Republicans fall apart, thanks to the fact that former President Donald Trump is seeking another term, Democrats are feeling pressure to fall in line — behind Biden. The goal is to scare off any potential Democratic challengers and condition Democratic voters to accept Biden as their party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

Here’s what Jim Messina, who managed President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, told The Post: “We can put aside any silly talk about primaries or new candidates in the presidential” race, Messina said. “Joe Biden’s focus on democracy and abortion with a positive message on the economy was the winning game plan.”

Not so fast. Many polls show that only about 35 percent of registered Democratic voters want Biden to seek re-election, even if they don’t have a strong alternative candidate in mind to replace him. That was true before the midterm elections, and it still seems to be the case.

A recent CNBC All-America Economic Survey — taken at the end of November — found that a majority of Americans, from both parties, didn’t want Biden to run for a second term in 2024. The survey found that just 19 percent of respondents said they supported a Biden re-election bid. And 70 percent of those polled — including 57 percent of Democrats — said they didn’t want Biden to run. Most of the folks who felt that way cited the president’s age as a major reason. Biden is now 80 years old.

It’s obvious that the media are pulling for Biden. But that doesn’t mean they’re allowed to pull a fast one on the public.

Anyway, Americans are too sophisticated to fall for that brand of spin. Many of them rejected a lot of what Republicans were offering in this year’s midterm elections: unqualified Senate candidates, extreme rhetoric, unworkable policies, personal attacks, Trump’s lingering and outsize influence over the party.

Even so, they have refused to obediently salute the idea that Biden should be the Democratic nominee in 2024. The fact that they turned their back on Republicans doesn’t mean they’re turning toward Biden.

This gives me renewed hope for the political process. Just because the media and the political parties can’t seem to deliver honesty, nuance and common sense doesn’t mean voters can’t find their way to these things on their own.

Ruben Navarrette’s email address is crimscribe@icloud.com. His podcast, “Ruben in the Center,” is available through every podcast app.