Trump’s Law And Order Message Isn’t Resonating With Most Americans

[Cardinal]

Trump's tactic of inciting people to kill each other in the streets in order to hold on to power may have been for nothing. At the heart of the miscalculation was an overestimation of the powers of media to influence people. The Trump Administration believed that they along with Fox News could determine people's priorities, but even the most aggressive media campaign really only gets you so far. If you're afraid of getting sick and dying, a looped video clip of a burning building on Fox or OANN isn't going to make you forget about that, and if you keep coming back to the pandemic, you're going to keep coming back to how badly government has mismanaged it.

Of the top concerns Americans have, crime is in fifth place (4%), behind race relations (10%), economic problems (12%), poor government leadership (22%), and the coronavirus 35%. Trump's attempt to put crime front and center was red meat for his base, but it was a terrible read on what is actually important to people.

Trump is grasping this, which is why he's resorting to increasingly desperate measures, like a sham vaccine announcement timed for two days before the election, along with telling his supporters to illegally vote multiple times. And of course we can all look forward to an announcement by the Ukraine or Barr of an investigation into Biden. As Biden continues to maintain a 7-8 point lead, expect Trump to become increasingly desperate and lawless. Trump knows he's going to prison after January 20, and he has no intention of going peacefully.

As President Trump continues to push a “law and order” campaign message, we’ve been keeping an eye on the polls to see whether there’s any truth to the narrative that the recent unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will help Trump politically. So far, the answer is no. Polls conducted this week and late last week suggest that public attitudes aren’t really breaking in Trump’s direction, even though the Republican National Convention focused a great deal on characterizing the Democrats as the party of chaos and anarchy.

Given the underlying support for these protests, a major challenge remains for the president: Many Americans doubt his ability to fix the problems and reduce tensions that have precipitated the demonstrations. According to a YouGov survey on Wednesday, 56 percent of adults said that the violence happening at protests would get worse if Trump were reelected this November. Fifteen percent thought the violence would stay at similar levels, while 18 percent thought it would improve (11 percent said they didn’t know). Conversely, 43 percent thought protest violence would get better if Joe Biden won, and just 23 percent thought it would worsen. Somewhat similarly, 50 percent of likely voters told Quinnipiac University this week that they felt less safe with Trump as president, compared with 35 percent who said they felt safer. These voters were more split on Biden, however: 42 percent said they’d feel safer with Biden in the White House, and 40 percent said they’d feel less safe.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...-message-isnt-resonating-with-most-americans/



https://morningconsult.com/2020/09/02/public-safety-biden-trump-polling/

https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx

 

[Cardinal]

I'm really going to have to work on my thread titles. Something more like, "You've gotta admit." or "You really have to ask yourself." or "Is there any doubt left?"