Polls from Quinnipiac University I always take with a grain of salt. And, actually, any single poll always should be taken with a grain of salt. But this particular Quinnipiac poll is so lopsided that I think it’s worth our confidence.
The poll, released November 22, found that only 35 percent of Americans consider themselves supporters of Trump’s MAGA movement. That means that Trumpism is now pretty much down to the irrational authoritarians who are motivated only by their meanness rather than anything that resembles a fact or a principle. There is a percentage below which that number will never go, because that kind of people never change. The number, I would argue, is somewhere between 25 and 35 percent. But the exact percentage doesn’t matter, because they are and always will be a minority. We need to keep in mind that, even in 2016, a majority of voters rejected Trump. It was only because of our archaic Electoral College and its amplification of rural votes that Trump got into the White House.
As I have often said here, there is not a snowball’s chance that Trump will ever again get near the White House. What remains to be seen, though, is whether the Republican Party will find a way to unload Trump to save itself, or whether Republicans (a majority of whom still believe in Trump) will ride Trump all the way down.
It’s past time for rational people to stop being afraid of Trump. Rather, just enjoy the shadenfreude of watching Trump finally taken down and disposed of by the law. When Trumpists strut and threaten, as they still do, just smirk and walk away.
4 Comments
Thank you David for this. It lifts my heart a bit
I’ve recently made “friends” with a coworker who is a Trump supporter. He likes to discuss politics with me, so I oblige simply because we’re at work. Furthermore, I’ve seen what websites he keeps open on his desktop – one was Breitbart. He’s also a manager and I’m just a senior analyst, and he discusses things like personnel matters with me that he definitely shouldn’t, but I digress.
Anyway, he is adamant about the prospect of another Trump term in office. He sees other Republicans as “RINOs” and any Democrat, including Biden, as farther left than any rational political spectator likely would. They’re all socialists in his mind. I’ve made some pointed remarks about Republicans and Trump to him like, “Don’t you think the Republican Party is quite racist?” or “Trump said and did some things in office that most Republicans didn’t even like.” Not to mention the deliberate false equivalency he made comparing the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol with anti police brutality protests and riots in Minneapolis and Portland.
It’s given me a glimpse into the mind of someone who still thinks Trump should be president two years after he lost the election and despite the criminal proceedings against him. They’re still digesting radical politics and ignoring the reality of where the country needs to go after Trump.
Hi Dan: I’d be interested in your view on how much this guy develops his opinions on his own versus to what degree he simply receives and repeats notions and talking points he gets from sources such as Breitbart. If things go the way I think they’re going to go with Trump, then your Republican friend and many like him are going to go through some things. As I see it, the Republican Party has no choice but to cut Trump loose, and they don’t have forever to do it. And if and when they do, it’s hard to imagine a scenario other than a scenario in which the 2024 Republican primary comes close to Republican against Republican violence, and about half of Republicans stay home for the November 2024 general election because they’re so angry at other Republicans. It’s also hard to imagine Trump doing anything to help the Republican Party, as opposed to himself.
I think that’s just it, David. My work pal is as much of a Trump supporter as Trump is a Republican. Everyone (every independently-thinking rational adult, that is) knows that Trump is an opportunist who took advantage of social media and a rush of discontent and anger among disenfranchised conservatives to become president. Actual Republicans like Tom Cotton and Asa Hutchinson (sorry, I’m an Arkansan) have long been associated with the GOP and want nothing to do with Trump. I remember Boehner and Ryan distancing themselves from him six or seven years ago only to be marginalized as the Trump cohort consolidated power. I think you’re right in that the tide is turning against Trump, and the GOP wants to reestablish itself as a legitimate political party.
I think my coworker does consume a fair amount of “alternative” news, but I was surprised when he told me something more or less accurate about the Colorado night club shooting – that the shooter is nonbinary. I thought he just saw that on InfoWars or something, but it was on MSNBC, CNN, etc. He’s a little delusional about what the GOP represents these days, obviously. He’s in denial of the racism and the elitism and sees the GOP as the party of the working class. I think that just because working class people in rural and suburban areas have associated themselves as Trump supporters or conservatives doesn’t mean that the party itself and its platform are representative of working class values. Also, and he said this with a rigid certainty, *all* colleges are nothing but conduits for liberal politics. I was a nontraditional a few years ago at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway as an economics student. The College of Business at UCA is one of the most conservative in the South, and the economics department receives a scholarship from the Koch Brothers (or it did back ten years ago when I was there). You can tell there’s no research or even double-checking the accuracy of his statements or beliefs that make up his ideology. It’s like Sean Hannity is controlling his mouth when he talks politics.
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