11-14-2019, 05:46 AM
(11-09-2019, 05:38 PM)Anthony Wrote: I've been saying this for literally decades, going back to the original T4T forum of which I was a member: The problem with disapproval ratings is that they don't tell you if the disapprovers of a conservative candidate do so because s/he is not conservative enough to suit them, or if the disapprovers of a liberal candidate do so because s/he is not liberal enough.
Donald Trump is no more reactionary than Reagan or either Bush. He is more abrasive and less competent.His corruption makes Warren G. Harding seem like Carter in integrity.
Even without an economic meltdown or a debacle of foreign policy, Trump has severe disapproval ratings. He can be hit from the Right on foreign policy, which is precisely what I see Schiff, Pelosi, et al doing. Trump makes Obama look by contrast like a practitioner of foreign policy that one best describes as a velvet glove over a mailed fist. (At the least, Obama recognized when such was necessary and appropriate.
Reagan may have been a nasty piece of work at times, but nobody ever questioned what country he stood for!
...When strong disapproval is around 50%, the usual techniques of electioneering, such as canvassing, do not work.
At this point eight years ago I saw Obama likely to win re-election. He would need a spirited and competent campaign to transform support around 45% into about 52% of the popular vote against the usual challenger. Mitt Romney was slightly better than the usual challenger to an incumbent who had solved more problems than he created. The Trump Presidency is infamous for chaos and corruption.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.