This was one of my favorite articles in the mid-aughts.

[matt_zimmer]

It's actually a humor piece, and NOT a subtle one, but it never fails to make me laugh, and I often repost it on my journal, or at least link it. Don't know who wrote it but here a good page for it:

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php/55579-bush-losing-core-supporters-(nsr)?p=801714

It's entitled "Bush Losing Core Supporters" and despite it coming out over a decade BEFORE Trump, I think it explains Trump's inexplicably mediocre but steady approval ratings ten years later entirely.

No matter what Trump did, no matter what he said (even on-camera), he almost never had an approval rating lower than around 41-43%. That was his basement, and it almost never changed. It barely ever rose (except for the start of Covid) but he had a far higher approval rating than someone as openly evil, vulgar, and stupid as him should have had. And some foolish people (like me for example) thought Trump being the worst President we ever had would push his approvals even worse than George W. Bush's, who wound up nearly universally despised by the time he left office. Again, people like me always thought too highly of Americans. And that's not a benefit of the doubt we'll ever deserve again after 2016. It shouldn't have taken 2020 and then Jan 6 for me to realize we as a country are both broken and irredeemable. But I was still very much a Pollyanna even back then. Sue me.

And the actual reason those basement approvals never happened to Trump is because a great deal of Bush's disapproval came from horrible people pissed off he wasn't stupid and evil ENOUGH. Those precise people have nothing to complain about when it comes to Trump, so Trump's support may be low, but it's always steady, it's MUCH higher than Bush's by the time he left office, and never once approached those dregs. It's because the Total Fucking Morons got Trump's back. They recognized the Shit King as one of their own the way they refused to for W.

Our country is broken.

Comments

Re: Agreed 100%. Exactly on point. ✊🏾

[a_natural_beauty]

Yes, the way he handled Covid was I think the worst any country handled it! I mean, Trump told people to drink bleach for heaven's sake! wtf... If we would of had anyone else in power during that time it would have been handled so much better. ANYONE.... and I don't say that lightly. I agree with you, handled everything poorly during those years. Even before covid I feel he handled things poorly.

Re: Agreed 100%. Exactly on point. ✊🏾

[jasonderoga86]

The final thing I will say on his Covid response is that he is the reason why the United States leads (and STILL leads) the world in Covid mortality by FAR. I mean, it's not even close. And it's also why we have to keep up with the rapid variant mutations... and yet we have people like Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert Kennedy (a DEMOCRAT!) STILL spreading lies about the vaccines. If I didn't know any better, I say this is Jonestown all over again; the "drink bleach" thing was like the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and discouraging vaccines is encouraging people to let themselves die from Covid to fight the "Deep State". And now, along with Covid, we have 2 NEW nationwide public health crises -- White supremacist domestic terrorism and it's sibling, day-in-the-life mass shootings continuously ignored by the GOP.

The crimes against humanity this is promoting and people still not giving a damn really disturbs me. Guess Liz Cheney was onto something when she said "idiot" Republicans are being elected, Matt told me something similar referring to criminals like Gaetz and MTG. But I'm focused on voting blue in 2024, continuing to help people, and above all... keeping a clear conscience.

Re: Agreed 100%. Exactly on point. ✊🏾

[a_natural_beauty]

Yes, you mention voting blue in 2024. I honestly feel I will always vote blue until the day I am not here anymore. We need to keep voting for those who will care for everyone and not just themselves.

Re: Agreed 100%. Exactly on point. ✊🏾

[matt_zimmer]

That's important, Jess.