An interesting
recent poll by Gallup takes
an interesting approach to the level of support that Americans feel for their
current president, Donald Trump. Rather than simply looking at whether
respondents support Donald Trump or not, Gallup asked respondents the following
question:
"How supportive are you of
Donald Trump on a 100-point scale where zero means you do not support anything
he is doing as president and 100 means you support everything he is doing as
president?"
By asking
the question in this fashion, Gallup was able to gauge how far Americans fall
on either side of the political divide, a divide that seems to widen over time.
Let's start by looking at Donald Trump's approval rating from Real Clear Politics. On an
overall plus-minus basis, Donald Trump's approval rating looks
like this since he took
office in January 2017:
Now, let's look at how Gallup handled Donald Trump's approval rating by looking at the degree of support that he receives from respondents. According
to the poll by Gallup, Donald Trump's support level looks like this:
As would be
expected, a majority of Americans either dislike most of what Donald Trump is
doing or support almost everything that he's doing with about one-third of
Americans having mixed feelings. Again, as would be anticipated, among
Democrats and Republicans, the averages fall at opposite ends of the spectrum
as shown here:
- among
Democrats, Trump's average score is 16 with a majority scoring him at 3 or
lower.
- among
Republicans, Trump's average score is 77 with 47 percent giving hi, a score of
80 or lower.
- among
independents, Trump's average score is 40 with 37 percent giving him a rating
of between 21 and 80.
When
looking at political persuasion beyond specific party identity, the breakdown
is even more telling:
-
Liberal Democrats - 13
- Moderate
Democrats - 17
-
Conservative Democrats - 28
-
Non-leaning independents - 36
- Moderate
and liberal Republicans - 60
-
Conservative Republicans - 81
It is
interesting to see that the support for Donald Trump is less than resounding
for moderate and liberal small "r" Republicans.
Gallup's
interesting approach to better understanding Donald Trump's approval goes well
beyond the normal Democrat vs. Republican polarization in the United States and
provides us with an even clearer viewpoint on the divisiveness that plagues
America today.
Posts
Mainstream media has worked very hard to place Trump in an unflattering light and this increasingly divides the American people. This means we continue to see a growing number of articles on the subject of Trumps "flip-flops" and his inability to get along with those he chose to bring about his vision. If voters who supported Trump become convinced he is playing them for fools it is likely they will loudly voice their discontent leaving him without a base. While some of this can be explained as a strategy change or that he is evolving it has and should raise concern.
ReplyDeleteWith Trump detractors eagerly awaiting the day when he fails and receives his comeuppance Trump best remember who his friends are and that in Washington he has very few of them. The article below delves into the ramifications for Trump of alienating his base.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2017/04/trump-comes-across-bit-too-clever-for.html