At one point slightly over 50% of Americans reportedly approved of Donald Trumps's leadership during the coronavirus pandemic leaving me wondering what the hell was wrong with many of my fellow citizens. Thankfully, sanity seems to have been restored as reported at Mother Jones and the Washington Post and Trump's approval numbers have fallen as he lies, preens and provides no leadership while at times silencing actual experts. One can only hope that more Americans will continue to wake up and that Trump's approval truly plummets outside white supremacist and Christofascists circles, two groups to blind to see reality. Mother Jones sums it up this way:
[P]olling shows that a growing number of Americans feel that Trump downplayed the crisis, was unprepared, and failed to respond quickly. In the latest poll out Saturday, 59 percent of respondents said they had “serious concerns” that Trump failed to take decisive action in the early stages of the outbreak. Even 40 percent of voters who supported Trump in 2016 now believe he failed to take the crisis seriously enough early on. The number of people saying Trump was honest about the crisis has declined, the poll showed, and 53 percent now believe he has been dishonest.
The Post column likewise shows that there may yet be hope for the country as Trump's failed leadership and lies becomes more obvious. Should red states where Republican governors - like Trump - have failed to act begin to suffer and see virus cases soar, even more sanity may prevail. Here are column excerpts:
Whatever small bump in the polls President Trump received at the onset of the covid-19 calamity was minuscule in comparison with the surges of support for previous crisis presidents and puny compared with the lift other world leaders were receiving for their efforts. . . . And Americans have seen the contrast between Trump and their far more competent governors.While American manufacturers are trying to help out, whatever materials they produce for health-care workers likely will be too little and too late. In light of all this, it’s no surprise that the Trump bump may well have dissipated.
The perception of Trump’s performance has changed dramatically. “Trump’s approval for his management of the coronavirus is now under-water, 47-52%. Approval is down from 55% in the poll released on March 20, and closer to where it was in the March 13 poll, when it was 43%.”
Trump’s approval may well decline even further as he weirdly seeks to avoid taking decisive action.
He announces the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that Americans wear masks in public, but declares he will not wear one.
He insists the national stockpile is a backup, effectively demanding states fight among themselves for scarce supplies and thereby bid up the price.
He shamelessly tries to blame the Obama administration for the testing debacle, though he has been president for over three years; he dissolved the National Security Council position on pandemics; and he disregarded his own experts’ warnings, thereby losing weeks to prepare for the virus’s onslaught.
Global Strategy Group’s Navigator poll found that “40% of 2016 Trump voters say the president did not take coronavirus seriously enough early in the crisis, up 17 points since early last week.” Americans overall — and 66 percent of independents specifically — say Trump did not take the threat of covid-19 seriously enough early on, up 10 points from the preceding week.
Noticeably, “the majority of white non-college Americans, a usually supportive group, say they are seriously concerned that Trump downplayed the threat of coronavirus early on.” Trump’s personal qualities are shining through — and that is bad news for him. “While 61% say Trump is unprepared, 52% say he is ‘chaotic’ and ‘erratic,’ and 51% say he is ‘irresponsible.’ ”
[H]is slow start and continued erratic presence may very well haunt him, causing all but his core base to throw up their hands in horror and disgust. Facts matter. And right now, the facts are grim.
No comments:
Post a Comment