Interesting analysis of the polls: The pandemic has led to a 'Trump bump' in the polls – but don't assume it will last
While I mainly agree with what is said in the the quotes provided, I have a feeling the last one will not prove to be true. I think we are at a point where it is rather unlikely for very many people to change their minds with regard to Trump. As can be seen on tweb and elsewhere there is a certain resistency to facts and a great willingnes to find all sorts of explanations to blame everyone but the worlds most powerful man. I have a feeling he should have stopped by:
I don't believe we will get past the point where there is a very huge audience for ideas like that. At least I don't believe the majority of the followers will change their minds. Many of them appear to be very much locked up in a "safe" universe in which their leader cannot fail.
The rise in Donald Trump’s approval ratings – it would be misleading to call it a surge – appears to have shocked his opponents. Critics in the Democratic party and the media have noisily condemned and ridiculed his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, as have some scientists and economists.
George W Bush saw his ratings go through the roof after the 9/11 attacks. His father, George HW Bush, hit 90%+ approval after the first Gulf war and held a parade to celebrate. By these measures, Trump should actually be doing much better in the polls. In fact, when asked whether the country is headed in the right direction under Trump, Americans say no by 55-38%.
The fact that Trump’s announcements have often been contradictory, ill-thought-through or plain false, and the fact he has reversed himself with alarming regularity – the latest U-turn being Sunday’s decision to extend social distancing measures until the end of April – does not seem to put off many viewers. What they think they see is a man in charge.
Yet by casting himself as an all-powerful, all-seeing “wartime president” calling the shots in the biggest national health and economic emergency Americans have experienced, Trump is setting himself up for a fall.
Yet by casting himself as an all-powerful, all-seeing “wartime president” calling the shots in the biggest national health and economic emergency Americans have experienced, Trump is setting himself up for a fall.
Trump’s gut instinct to dispute expert medical advice, without any evidence, plays into the anti-establishment, anti-science and Christian fundamentalist sentiments nurtured in Trump’s Republican base. So, too, do his xenophobic attempts to blame the virus on foreigners and foes, principally China’s communist leaders, immigrants and Europe.
The “Trump bump”, like the so-called post-election “Boris bounce” in Britain, could soon be a bad joke – a grim memorial to incompetence at a time of existential need.
Trump’s gut instinct to dispute expert medical advice, without any evidence, plays into the anti-establishment, anti-science and Christian fundamentalist sentiments nurtured in Trump’s Republican base. So, too, do his xenophobic attempts to blame the virus on foreigners and foes, principally China’s communist leaders, immigrants and Europe.
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