The floor is collapsing under Trump as COVID-19 hits his base

[IronLionZion]

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-floor-is-collapsing-under-trump-as-covid-19-hits-his-base/

I have long argued that conservatives’ innate empathy deficit requires them to suffer directly from societal problems and controversies before they will support basic concepts, like the value of the social safety net or the importance of medical research or the morality of same-sex marriage. We’ve seen this play out with the COVID-19 crisis, as the virus first hit urban centers and coastal regions rather than Republican strongholds.

Republican governors, with only a few exceptions, did not take the pandemic seriously enough and put too much emphasis on reopening their economies. They are now suffering the consequences, and their constituents are turning on them, and on the president. Gallup shows Trump’s approval rating sinking to 38 percent, and the explanation is based almost entirely on new people being impacted by COVID-19.

Pew Research Center polls show Trump’s approval is slipping fastest in the 500 counties where the number of cases have been more than 28 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people.

Pew surveyed voters in late March and the same people again in late June, and found 17% of those who approved of the president in March now disapprove.

The shift came almost equally among Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and college graduates and non-graduates. But those who live in counties with a high number of virus cases were 50% more likely to say they no longer approve of Trump.

It was easy for conservative-minded people, regardless of formal party affiliation, to maintain their support for Trump so long as the pandemic seemed far away and someone else’s fault. These are the folks who stubbornly stuck with the president through everything over the last three and a half years. They created the floor in Trump’s approval ratings.

But they are beginning to abandon him now that it’s their hospitals that are filled with coronavirus patients. They can see that things have not turned out the way that Trump or their Republican governors said they would. That’s why Trump’s approval numbers have dropped, and it’s also why Republican internal polling points to a coming rout at the hands of the Democrats.

[John Fante]

1. And Gallup has been very generous to Gump throughout his presidency.

They even had him at 49% earlier this year. Still, it's remarkable that this farce of a human being had a 38% approval rating.

[IronLionZion]

7. This is all a game of limbo

how low can he go?

[Mr.Bill]

13. I figure when it gets to about 20%

they are a pure suicide cult.

[bottomofthehill]

24. Hoover got 39 percent of the vote in 1932

Even in the Depression, almost 40 percent were willing to stick with him. It was an Electoral College wipe out, but still nearly 40 percent.

[mercuryblues]

2. His die hard supporters

are learning that they die too.

They don't care about anything until it affects them. They cheered him on when he did nothing to help the 1st victims of Covid 19. By their actions, they have my full contempt. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

[onetexan]

14. It's not just them dying. It's witnessing their relatives & other RW'ers around them. AND many have

lost jobs due to covid as well. When it hits the pocketbooks and their personal safety they will bail.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Just wait until the $600/wk runs out and the stimulus they were

expecting is not coming and their jobs are gone.. Hell to pay.

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Wait till they lose their houses

No job=no mortgage/rent $$$$

[DallasNE]

33. The June Jobs Report Had A Nice Headline Number But

It also showed that there were 588,000 permanent jobs lost in June. By comparison, at the peak of the Great Recession that number was roughly 800,000 but it came down sharply as soon as stimulus spending kicked in. This number will not come down on its own so until Biden is sworn in we will have very elevated unemployment numbers. And the current 12% is well more than the worst point in the Great Recession, which I believe was February 2009.

[onetexan]

35. Yes no doubt. Many industries are taking advantage of covid to lay people off

Temp furloughs as well. Its highly unethical but companies are only focused onthe almighty dollar.

[Grins]

28. "...until it affects them."

Just like AIDS under Reagan.

And so many other instances and human conditions; alcoholism, ADHD, Autism, physical disabilities, etc.

I used to have a list of Republicans who consistently voted against helping others until it was THEM, or one of THEIR family members, who got afflicted with a problem they consistently ignored. May have to get it out...

[SiliconValley_Dem]

3. I predicted this in March and April as did many others

brute force of scientific reality.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. "Let them eat cake!"

"What do you mean, we don't even have cake left for us?!"

[IronLionZion]

8. The cake is poisoned and/or drugged

[Walleye]

5. I don't want them to die but

I hope they suffer and run up huge medical bills. Especially those arrogant pricks who objected to the individual mandate for health insurance

[Dfwguy99]

6. Maybe they will stay home and not vote in 2020

Having family members as hard core trump worshippers, I have noticed a slight change in their support. Now I am hearing ‘well, they are all corrupt” . These people will never admit they were conned by trump, so this sort of response seems to be the best we can hope for...oh yeah, and perhaps they will stay home and not vote on election day

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. Yep, that's the typical fall-back.

"They're ALL crooks anyway."

When I hear that, I now presume that person is a Republican.

[calimary]

26. Welcome to DU, Dfwguy99!

I think some of it is basic psychology. Nobody wants to admit they were wrong, much less that they've been royally had. Especially when it means they have to face the reality that the hated "libruls" and science fans and fact-lovers and eager readers and researchers they live to resent were actually right. Actually we liberals ARE the ones who got it right, called it right, and nailed it right ... to the wall, thankyouverymuch.

And if they wanna stay home and pout on Election Day? GOOD! One less trump voter! A friend of mine who reviles Democrats because we're all "baby-killers" simply cannot bring herself to vote for Joe Biden this fall, although she won't be voting for the donald again. She didn't like Hillary because who-the-fuck-knows-why. My friend said she's voting for the Libertarian candidate in November. Okay, fine. That, too, is one less vote for trump. I'll take it.

[Awsi Dooger]

31. Your friend will end up voting for Trump

Don't kid yourself. The polls are still understating Trump due to so many hate filled types who will claim they've abandoned him but vote for him anyway.

[Takket]

10. and he's not going to win those people back by throwing fits about monuments and confederate flags.

[Cha]

11. trump debased "base" who have been begging for it.

[trueblue2007]

12. hope they all get sick

[MyOwnPeace]

15. Like the disgruntled prison guard from Florida said,

"He ain't hurtin' the right people...."

[StarlightGold]

16. I just hope this is not

kind of like a “Bradley Effect”, where people say one thing and then in the voting booth, they vote for him anyway.

[BamaRefugee]

21. You can bet the farm that will happen. Then they lie to exit pollsters.

[Awsi Dooger]

34. Absolutely that will happen

The Republican base is not declining. Trump will receive a higher percentage of Republicans than he did in 2016.

Biden needs to win swing independent voters, the type who preferred Trump in 2016 then switched Democratic in 2018.

The shifts are small, not pronounced. Always remember that. The articles and televised segments always exaggerate a trend.

[Xolodno]

17. Let the bodies hit the floor....let the bodies hit the floor. nt

[mountain grammy]

18. This does give me hope

Surely my fellow Americans aren’t this dumb...

[CaptainTruth]

19. Reminds me of this meme...

[link:|

[ailsagirl]

20. It's so discouraging...

I've thought so many times in the past few years that this HAS to be the end for dump and... he's still here, angling to get
"re-elected"

(BTW, can you get re-elected if you weren't elected in the first place??)

What a nightmare.

[Senor Insomne]

23. Cue Maher

[Laura PourMeADrink]

25. So clear .. there's an orchestrated effort to kill people

Or at least dispose of them

In TX, testing has dwindled. And, it is one of the hotspots.

I know, because in our county there were many sites, drive through, free. GONE!!! Down to two and one is CVS who won't take anyone unless severe symptoms. The other replies that they are booked.

Major test supplier pulled out. Unexplained.

[live love laugh]

30. Unbelievable. nt

[lindysalsagal]

29. Remember Dad saying, "I'll give you something to cry about!" when you complained?

Well, these pathetic resenters now really DO have something to complain about: Grandma died needlessly, and they couldn't even be at her side in the hospital or the funeral.

The learning curve is high, but so are the costs of resisting it.

[summer_in_TX]

32. The attitude of many voters in red states is due to years of drinking the poison.

The "ditto heads" heard time after time that liberals were out to destroy America. FOX News told viewers that liberals hate Christmas and were at war with it. Limbaugh told them recently about how much liberals despise his listeners.

They've used the same tactics on their audience as is used to prepare soldiers for war. They've "othered" us, much like our enemies are before war. They've dehumanized us in the minds of their followers. They didn't care about those New York or California liberals suffering from COVID (or those caring for them) in the same way they don't care much about the fate of foreigners overseas.

The attitudes of contempt many liberals express towards them are no help at all. In many ways, we "other" them too. A basket full of deplorables doesn't strike us as all that bad. It strikes them quite differently.

[warmfeet]

36. May it all collapse upon his tiny little head. NT

[bdamomma]

37. following

their cult leader to their very deaths.