When 46% support Trump, what does it say about our country?

[ksoze]

Internal poll issues aside, the new NBC poll which shows 46 percent support of Trump is disturbing at best. When many of us feel he could not get worse for the country, he gains 3 points. Unless the poll was taken in a Applebee's the middle of the country, I find it hard to believe over 4 in 10 of us support him. So when you walk in the mall, shop in a store or sit in a church, 4 out of very 10 people around dig a lunatic racist.

Are we a country that can be saved?

?

[PJMcK]

1. I have a different question

Are we a country that deserves to be saved?

[Mickju]

2. I wonder that too.

This is really depressing.

[NewJeffCT]

3. most people aren't really paying attention

they think the economy is doing okay and they see Trump crowing about how things have never been better, and that is okay for many,

[cbdo2007]

10. This is what I was going to say.

Most people's day to day lives are pretty good...that's why people don't pay attention, and why we don't march in the streets, and why he got elected in the first place. On DU we know about 95% of the news that goes on because we go out of our way to stay informed, most people though just trust that things are going ok and think if they got their 3% raise this year and can still get all their tv channels and can eat out at Texas Roadhouse twice per week, then life is pretty good.

[marylandblue]

4. Throughout history, republics have been rare

The most common forms of government by far have been monarchies and dictatorships. For last two hundred and fifty years, the West has been experimenting with republics. Long enough for everyone alive today to think it "normal," but not long enough to prove it really can work over the long haul. Every Western republic has a growing right wing authoritarian movement, so it's not just us.

Is there something about the human species that makes us prefer monarchs to self-government?

[Yeehah]

49. Yes, stupidity.

Humans just ain't that smart. Look what we are doing to our only home, Planet Earth.

[BannonsLiver]

5. Are we a country that can be saved?

The short answer is no. I also think we humans are a virus so probably not the most optimistic outlook you’ll find.

[kennetha]

6. It says that our country is badly broken and in urgent need of repair.

[Locutusofborg]

7. Trump got 46% of the vote in 2016

There is a range in Trump’s current job approval polling from a low of 41% in the Reuters Poll to a high of 47% in Trump’s favorite pollster, Rasmussen Reports. His median polling for the current weeks is in the 42-44% range.
What the NBC poll signifies to me is that Trump’s 46% of the popular vote base is remaining loyal.
At the same point in time in his presidency, Barack Obama was at 46% approve/46% disapprove and 8% were unsure or had no opinion in the Gallup Poll of February 28-March 6, 2011.

[Andy823]

45. No he did not

46% of eligible voters didn't even vote. Of the 54% that did, Hillary received 3 million more votes than trump. How do you get your figures that 46% voted for trump!

[Doodley]

55. Obviously, it is a reference to vote share.

[lunatica]

8. Well the Blue Wave sure contradicts that poll doesn't it?

[John Fante]

16. Gump's average on 538 is nearly identical to what it was on the night

the Democrats received 60.7 millions and took back the house in emphatic fashion. Some of these DUers need to chill.

[Scurrilous]

28. ...

[Awsi Dooger]

41. Trump's approval rating was 45% in the 2018 national exit poll

45 positive and 54 negative

538 was 41.8% that day compared to 42.1% today

I have no idea how that 46% can look so out of line, when actual voters supplied a 45% on the most recent election day. Our adjustments continue to be in the wrong direction.

[VOX]

44. "Some of these DUers need to chill." Nice.

Thanks for being a real team player.

[John Fante]

46. I'm sorry, should I wring my hands and proclaim that Trump has it in the bag

so I can fit in better?

[VOX]

50. Yes. Do exactly that while I put you on ignore.

[bdamomma]

51. The only way to end

this all will be for us to get out there and back our Democratic candidate and vote this POS out of office.

We all need to realize we have the power to do so.

[smirkymonkey]

9. It means we are fucked.

Fucked because he may possibly be elected again.

Fucked because we have such a large percentage of stupid, ignorant, racist, hateful, greedy, uncaring citizens who don't see what a danger this man is to the nation and to the world. They put their own petty interests above the greater good and in doing so they will bring us all down. I honestly can't understand how so many people can be so blind and stupid.

[Achilleaze]

21. The flop is about to flip

methinks

[Danmel]

22. Most of the time the stuff trump does isn't in their interests but

But he hates who they hate so they are cool with it

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. think of how many people binge watch reality TV - or listen to hate radio, or watch Fox.

They are brainwashed - it is utterly unavoidable. They wallow in mediocrity or worse. They are prone to authoritarianism. They crave to be told what to think - to belong - it is tribalism at its worst.

Think of one issue voters. Think of the brainwashing going on in so many churches. Think of how fear plays on so many - and all of the covert or overt racism - or simple lack of acceptance of anyone not just like them. Think of how many of them are stuck in their mucks of lives - so are envious of those who have achieved more.

It all adds up to where it is - and sadly, it makes sense - though not particularly to us.

[John Fante]

12. Most of the recent polling for Gump is in the 40-42% range.

Even Rasmussen has him at 47%, which is low for them.

The NBC poll could be the start of a trend, but given the awful week Gump just had, I doubt it.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. One Poll, One Week

It's still no better than the % vote it got. And, I STRONGLY question the methodology and the sampling technique.

[2naSalit]

34. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[marlakay]

14. I am sincerely hoping the 46%

Is people who vote only since 50% don’t vote, so really that means he has 23%.

That makes me feel better.

His people make a lot of noise and the media loves controversy so it just seems like more people.

The whole thing is out of whack because more and more people live in blue states making the electoral states have a unequal balance of power in our country.

[BlueintheSTL]

15. It really does not matter what his approval rating is now

It matters what it is in October of 2020.

[Stuart G]

18. Just as important, or more important is who comes out to vote.

If all who disapprove come out to vote, then Trump will not win. All is all. It really is that simple.

[GrannyW]

17. There are times I think about both questions. CAN we save ourselves - I have my doubts.

The forces on the right are VERY strong, very entrenched, and do not play well with others - making them impossible to co-exist with. Whatever rules used to exist for these wars have been thrown out by the right and it has led to their success - why should they ever change? Add in the unwillingness of the left to take strong, significant action because of its addiction to "big tent" tolerance (compromise of values) and it is clear why stopping them is so damn difficult.

SHOULD the nation be saved - NOT in its current form.
In general, the US is just too big. The institutions that are necessary in the oversized world of American exceptionalism are too prone to corruption because humans are too prone to corruption. Our institutions, which were supposedly designed to serve We the People (sure it was) serve the owners of everything instead.
Specifically, there are too many fatal flaws in the design that may have been okay centuries ago but serve no positive purpose any longer (e.g. the EC). Unless we RADICALLY modify the system that governs us, the same forces will rise again to thwart progress.

Trump has exposed the truth about America and what kind of "people" we really are.
It is a painful lesson that some refuse to learn and others run from to protect what they have.

It is too late for anything (short of nuclear war) to really directly affect me, but I fear for my grandsons and the world they will have to survive. They deserve better.

[mr_lebowski]

32. Well said, and Welcome to DU, GrannyW! (nt)

[lark]

19. It tells me several things.

- don't trust the methodology
- America is a sick and dying democracy having given in to a traitorous criminal oligarch
- I don't want to leave my daughter, but if he & PUtin win again, I want no part of this either and don't know what to do. We have friends in NZ that have assured us we could live there (they are politically connected) and my sister would go with us but damn I'd miss my daughter and her husband so much!
- I will do my utmost to help another Blue Wave generate so my country can continue & so that I don't have to deal with making an impossible choice and will again volunteer with Florida Democrats.

[uponit7771]

20. 538 has him 42 / 53

[TheRealNorth]

23. Russian/alt-right active measures

Are having an effect

[Mr. Ected]

24. It means that any progress that we make will be short-lived

We can defeat them now, but their numbers never deteriorate and their cheating ways almost ensures victories where the will of the people will be subverted. Our country will never be the panacea we can imagine it being because this wide swath of quasi-fascism is omnipresent and will always be so.

[Cosmocat]

30. Unfortunately

very likely spot on ... I have had heartburn over this since the early 90s, and it has only gotten worse.

Until the country WTFU, and strongly repudiates "conservatism" we are just going along for the ride.

I hold out very little hope this will happen after spending my entire adult life watching the country bend over backwards to indulge right wing fuck wittery.

[Drunken Irishman]

25. As long as the economy continues its surge, Trump will have leeway...

I've been saying this for a year now. Americans will look the other way when it comes to a lot if the economy is booming and their 401K is surging. Trump's approval dipped mostly when the stock market dipped and people saw it in their 401K.

But there's a lot of Americans, people who don't really like Trump, who dismiss a lot of what he does because their 401K isn't taking a hit, or it's doing extremely well. I work with one of these people. She's an older lady, probably ten years out from retirement, a Republican, but not someone you'd ever think is a Trumpster. She finds him embarrassing and wishes he'd shut up half the time. Yet I guarantee you she'll vote for him in 2020 if things continue like they've continued because, as she told me once, "I don't care for what he says ... but as long as my 401K continues to rise, he can say and do whatever he wants..."

It really isn't THAT dissimilar to what we saw in the 90s with Bill Clinton. How many people excused his lying under oath and getting a blow job because the economy was roaring? I heard it a lot - who cares if he gets a BJ? Look what he's doing for the economy!

Guess what? Had the economy plunged into a recession in the late 90s, I'm not so sure Clinton survives the Lewinsky affair. But his approval was inflated by how well things were going and people were more likely to forgive him for it. The same thing happened with Reagan. Reagan was a disaster in the early 80s, sinking to the low 30s in approval, and well on his way to being a one-term president. And that was AFTER someone shot him and the sympathy he received in the wake of all that.

But a funny thing happened ... the economy boomed in 1983 and 84 and Reagan won a landslide.

The economy generally masks deficiencies in a president. Trump is a danger to be reelected solely for that reason.

[sarcasmo]

26. Landline polling.

[triron]

39. Well that says it right there. eos.

[The empressof all]

27. More people follow the Kardasians than Current news events

They know the Trump name which creates value to them. I'm deeply cynical about the current state of willful ignorance in our population. Most Americans are not like the folks that we see here on DU or who we follow on our twitter feed. It's discouraging.

[DasMadchen]

29. "Applebee's the middle of the country"...

What's the point of that? We're not all divided enough for you?

I'm telling you.... we're all on the same team here, but this crap is gets old...

[Demsrule86]

31. Not sure it is true.

[moondust]

33. It reminds me that

I shoulda been born in Denmark.

[Bradshaw3]

35. It says that he can win in 2020

That's why we have to be careful choosing our nominee.

[Awsi Dooger]

40. Too much overconfidence that anyone can defeat Trump

The out party always places absurd degree of faith in the results of that first term midterm, as if it will automatically repeat two years later.

We need to nominate someone who can defeat Trump if his approval rating on the 538 compilation rises another 2-3 points by November 2020. I think that is the most likely occurrence. It has to be someone charismatic, IMO. I would prefer Beto, for reasons I have described including today in the "Primaries" forum.

Otherwise I am heavily invested in the stock market but am more than willing to suffer an ugly 2020 if it is necessary to get rid of Donald Trump.

[Bradshaw3]

42. I'm afraid too many are overconfident

Thinking that whoever the Dems nominate will win and it's beginning to scare me. I will check out your thread there.

[onecaliberal]

36. I don't buy that.

[triron]

37. One poll. What is sample and methodology?

I call BS. Either that or the American public is badly duped.

[allgood33]

38. A reminder: In America, RACISM TRUMPS EVERYTHING ELSE.

No matter how you cut the political pie we know this is true and we only kid ouselves if we deny it.

In 2016, people were not so worried about their economic situation as thing were pretty good and on the up-swing. It wasn't really jobs but wages that were the key issue and barely any of the Trump supporters ever cited that as a concern that Trump would fix.

Only Trump's open and proud dog whistles of racism, sexism, and Islamaphobia but mainly racism is what propelled him over the Electorial line. Say what you will, his overt and covert racism will be a possible winning strategy for him in 2020 unless the Democrats pull themselves together and fight as a unified force against him. We cannot afford to thumb our noses at any of our candidates.

[Bradshaw3]

43. Well said n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

47. If you belonged to a culture that was allowed to skirt the law just because

of the color of their skin, wouldn't you support the one guy that reflects your views?

[Joe941]

48. Bogus poll.

[Blue Owl]

52. Sorry but your favorite Trump approval poll is bullshit

He's tanking, and these fucking propaganda polls are just some stupid effort to keep what's left of his image afloat.

IMPEACH THE MOTHERFUCKER.

[Tiggeroshii]

53. We still need to legalize pot

[Doodley]

54. It says we aren't doing a good job at communicating how bad Trump is.

[Inkfreak]

56. Yes.

[Peace06]

57. Trump polls

He is fixing the polls as he did before election. Don't know how, but firmly believe it.