Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Most Americans View Foreign Conflicts As Important To U.S.
The charts above are from a Pew Research Center survey done between January 22 and 28th of a nationwide sample of 5,146 adults, with a 1.7 point margin of error.
Trump's Appeal To Black Voters Was Insulting And Racist
The following post is by Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post:
Donald Trump’s con-man hustle for the African American vote is cringeworthy, cynical, infuriating, insulting, racist, super-racist — take your pick. Just don’t call it sincere. And don’t expect it to work.
On Friday night, speaking to an audience mostly of Black conservatives in Columbia, S.C., Trump likened his indictment on 91 felony charges to historic discrimination against African Americans. “A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me, because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” Trump said.
He added that “the Black people” are “on my side now because they see what’s happening to me happens to them.” Presenting himself as some sort of martyr for civil rights, he claimed that “I am being indicted for you, the Black population.”
And there’s more: Trump claimed that African Americans are especially drawn to him by the mug shot that was taken when he surrendered to custody on felony charges in Fulton County, Ga. “The mug shot, we’ve all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. It’s incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know, they do shirts,” Trump said.
For the record, none of the Black right-wing luminaries who joined Trump at the campaign event — a group that included Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and former housing secretary Ben Carson — stormed off the stage. Donalds later went so far as to defend Trump’s remarks. I guess hearing African Americans stereotyped as ignorant, gullible and criminally inclined doesn’t bother some folks.
In honor of Black History Month, let’s review a bit of Trump’s historywith Black people. In 1973, his real estate company was sued by the Justice Department for discrimination against African American renters; the company entered a consent decree promising to end the practice. In 1989, Trump took out full-page ads in four New York newspapers urging the state to “bring back the death penalty” in reference to the Central Park Five, a group of Black and Latino menwrongly convicted of a brutal rape; even after the men were exonerated, Trump refused to apologize.
Trump launched his career in politics by making himself the most prominent advocate of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory falsely alleging that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. During Trump’s first year in the White House — after a rally by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville led to the death of a counterprotester — Trump said there were “some very fine people on both sides.” In 2018, referring to immigration figures, Trump referred to Central American, Caribbean and African countries as “shitholes” that “send us the people they don’t want.” And that’s in addition to Trump’s opposition to views held by majorities of African Americans on issues such as affirmative action and voting rights.
Trump won 12 percent of the Black vote in 2020. That was more than GOP presidential candidates usually get — but still, just 12 percent. Republicans have been salivating over recent polls showing more African American support for Trump this time around, along with relatively tepid approval of President Biden.
But on the one occasion so far when substantial numbers of Black votershave had the opportunity to cast ballots — the admittedly not-very-competitive Democratic primary in South Carolina earlier this month — they showed greater enthusiasm for Biden’s reelection than other Democrats did.
In election after election, the African American vote has been fool’s gold for the Republican Party. The problem is not that there are no Black conservatives; in fact, there are many. It is that the GOP, broadly, has faced African Americans with cluelessness or outright hostility. When Republican officials such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis try to censor African American history so that no one feels uncomfortable, or when GOP candidate Nikki Haley insists that “America has never been a racist country,” the party’s credibility among Black voters tends to evaporate.
Trump’s crude rhetorical pandering is certainly a different approach. But not in a good way.
In his speech Friday, Trump boasted of getting a better deal on the cost of a new Air Force One than the Obama administration had negotiated — a claim that turns out to be utterly false. He asked, “Would you rather have the Black president or the White president who got $1.7 billion off the price?” The crowd of African American conservatives applauded, and Trump boasted, “I think they want the White guy.”
Obviously, I can’t speak for all African Americans. But my prediction is no, not really. No, we don’t.
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Trump's NATO Remarks Did Not Go Over Well With Voters
The charts above reflect the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 18th and 20th of a nationwide sample of 1,562 adults (including 1,360 registered voters). The margin of error was 3.1 points for both adults and registered voters.
It has been obvious for years now that Donald Trump doesn't like NATO. When meeting with NATO leaders during his presidency, Trump wanted to withdraw from the organization according to his National Security Advisor John Bolton. He had to be talked out of it by his advisors.
Recently Trump again attacked NATO -- saying he would not defend member that was behind in dues, and would even ask Russia to attack them. That might have gone over well with the members of his cult, but most Americans did not like it.
About 53% of adults (and 58% of registered voters) have a favorable opinion of NATO. And 54% of adults (and 58% of registered voters) disapproved of Trump's remarks.
Trump is not winning any votes with this unpopular stand against NATO.
Today's Republicans Don't Respect Facts, Logic, Or Truth
Facts, logic, and truth are not necessarily respecters of political beliefs. In the past, some have supported liberal views and others have supported conservative views. Democrats and Republicans argued facts, logic, and truth and that debate usually ended in compromise -- and this country was better for it.
Sadly, that no longer applies in the U.S. Congress, because one of our political parties has abandoned its belief in facts, logic and truth.
Most Republicans have cast their lot with Donald Trump, in spite of the fact that he told over 30,000 documented lies during his term in office. The now believe all of those lies, including the biggest one -- that Trump won the 2020 election and had it stolen from him. There is absolutely no evidence of that. But evidently they don't need any evidence to believe him.
To this day, a large majority of the GOP base believes President Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election. Why do they believe it? Because Donald Trump said it was true, and they want to believe it!
This lack of belief in facts, logic, and truth has even infected Republicans in the U.S. Congress. They have taken up Trump's claim about a "crisis" at our southern border, and demanded some very right-wing changes. But when Democrats agreed to the changes, they voted against the resulting bill. Why? Because Donald Trump told them to do it.
Compromise has become impossible in Congress because of the Republicans ignoring facts, logic, and truth. Only their agenda matters, and that agenda in whatever Donald Trump wants. And Trump will not let them compromise for the good of the country. He demands absolute loyalty, and cares only about what is good for him -- not what is good for the country.
I am a Democrat, but there have been many Republicans I respected in the past (like John McCain, William Buckley, Everett Dirksen, Nelson Rockefeller, and Dwight Eisenhower). Why I disagreed with them on some economic issues, I felt they were patriotic Americans who were acting in what they considered to be the best interests of the country -- and they were willing to compromise for the good of the country.
But the lack of facts, logic, and truth inherent in today's Republican base and elected officials is hurting this country. They have no true beliefs and are unwilling to compromise. They just wait for Trump to tell them what to think or do (whether it is good for the country or not).
Monday, February 26, 2024
Trump Wins South Carolina (But Shows Some Weakness)
Donald Trump won the South Carolina Republican primary in a 60% to 40% decision over Nikki Haley. But he showed some weakness. Most pundits and polls had him winning upwards of 70% of the vote.
Exit polling showed where some of the weakness existed. Trump lost 53% of college educated voters, 41% of Republican women, 73% of moderates, 60% of Independents, and 54% of non-evangelicals.
I expect most of the Haley voters will hold their nose and vote for Trump in November, but it won't take many to vote Biden, vote third party, or just stay at home to deny him the presidency.
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