“Two
things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about
the universe.”
Albert
Einstein
"The
best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to
a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to
your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to
all others, charity."
Benjamin
Franklin
“The enemy is not the one who is
facing you with a sword in hand, that's the opponent. The enemy is the one
behind you with a knife at your back.”
Thomas Sankara
People, and more especially the
category of Americans whose loyalty to anyone or to any entity hinges on the
personal benefits they derive from having a relationship with that person or
body, have a hard time understanding the nature of Donald Trump’s support base.
The disconnect can be traced way back, even before the start of his presidency,
when many pundits and analysts of different shades first tried to elaborate on
the rationale for the 35 percent solid support that the president had been
commanding among the electorate since his election into the Oval Office, as if
everything depends on empirical formulas. However, the past two and a half
years have exposed several flaws in the analyses postulated by some of these
gurus or savants on the nature of Donald Trump’s core supporters.
How does one then explain the fact
that the Republican Party which traditionally catered for the interest of the
wealthy class and which drew much of its support from the country’s deeply
religious, is having a billionaire Republican in the White House who
nevertheless commands the support of a medley range of Americans that Hillary
Clinton described as a “Basket of Deplorables”, the majority of whom are
economically underprivileged, yet constitute the group that has the highest
percentage of his core supporters?
The fact that this category of
Americans rose from 35 percent in early 2017 to 36 percent in April 2019, with
the increase coming from all the racial groups in the country, presents an
intriguing angle for any gung-ho analysts.
We don’t have to think deeply or look
far to figure out why many people find that increase among Donald Trump’s core
supporters intriguing. The anticipation that accompanied the 2018-2019 shutdown
when most of his opponents and even some of those who were not really against him
thought that the standoff between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over
funding for the president’s proposed border wall would shrink the size of his
core supporters, was grounded on solid analysis. However, the opposition’s
expectations of political gains from that hiccup turned out to be a pyrrhic
victory only. All the different polls taken since January 2019 show a
consistent drop in the percentage of Americans who disapprove of Donald Trump’s
presidency, a decline that has been steady to the point where the president’s
core support base has risen to 36 percent of adult Americans.
Trump Administration’s 2019 Approval Rating
Company/Monthly
Percentages
|
January 2019
|
February 2019
|
March 2019
|
April 2019
|
May 2019
|
Ipsos (for Reuters)
|
39%
|
41%
|
42%
|
39%
|
39%
|
YouGov (for The Economist)
|
37%
|
40%
|
43%
|
42%
|
42%
|
Investor's Business Daily
|
42%
|
39%
|
41%
|
41%
|
43%
|
NBC News/Wall Street Journal
|
43%
|
46%
|
53%
|
46%
|
|
Gallup
|
37%
|
43%
|
39%
|
46%
|
There are certain things, certain
people and certain situations that the well-informed mind has a hard time
fathoming. Donald Trump happens to be one of them. So much dirt has been flung
at him that his approval ratings should have plummeted to the point where we
should be expecting him to suffer a humiliating loss in the 2020 presidential
election with a lower percentage or vote count than even Jimmy Carter, who as
an incumbent, lost the 1984 Presidential Election by 41% (35,480,115) to Ronald
Reagan’s 50.7% (43,903,230). It is as if the American people, or more
specifically Donald Trump’s core supporters, have come to the conclusion that
American politics, like that of many other countries dominated by powerful
interest groups, is replete with intrigues, conspiracies, make-beliefs, and
secret plans; it is as if they are seeing something of Machiavelli in those
opposing the 45th president and so are reacting to it instinctively
and calculatingly by distrusting the mainstream media that harps on
allegations, many of which are baseless, that the president colluded with
Russia, obstructed justice, etc.
Donald Trump’s core supporters
distrust the bureaucracy made up of cabinet departments, government
corporations, independent agencies, and regulatory commissions; they wonder
about the bureaucracy that sees the United States of America as the world’s
only military, economic and diplomatic superpower
and seems determined to do whatever it takes to continue leading the world. The
corporate media and the bureaucracy have become less attractive to the majority
of these Trump core supporters since he started regulating American affairs
from the Oval Office.
It would be wrong to say that there
is no truth in all the accusations that have been made against the 45th
US. president, or that he does not deserve all the dirt that has been thrown at
him. The United States of America’s first gentleman has an abrasive personality
among other things, which is why it would surprise nobody that he has irked
some of the people he crossed paths with. And based on a scorecard of scandals
and allegations against him, it is easy to conclude that he is attracted to
actions that many consider morally wrong and borderline legal, while having
strong immunity against them at the same time. I say so because Donald Trump
has put up an ambivalent defense to the accusations heaped on him by his
opponents calling to question his pledge to “Drain the Swamp” in Washington DC,
yet he seems unscathed by these charges or claims.
By Janvier T. Chando, author of "FALLEN HEROES: African Leaders Whose Assassinations Disarrayed the Continent and Benefitted Foreign Interests"
By Janvier T. Chando, author of "FALLEN HEROES: African Leaders Whose Assassinations Disarrayed the Continent and Benefitted Foreign Interests"
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