I started my university career studying history, a topic that fascinated me for my whole life. But maybe I'm wrong about Trump, who I'm absolutely certain in the very worst president-- if he even is a legitimate president-- in U.S. history. Yes, he's worse than Nixon or George W. Bush or Reagan and worse than Warren G. Harding, worse than Tyler, Pierce or William Henry Harrison, worse than Buchanan and worse than Andrew Johnson. Fox viewers disagree. A poll shows that 78% of the Republican Fox viewers say Trump is the best president ever-- not just better than Obama, better than FDR, George Washington and Abe Lincoln! Is it an alternative reality or have I been too poisoned with Trump-phobia to see clearly? I asked Twitter. The immediate response (from my followers): they think he sucks too:The poll of Fox viewers exposes "the deep ideological divide between Fox News viewers and everyone else." It appears hopeless to try to dissuade these people, doesn't it? "The survey’s authors argue that the network presents an 'alternate reality' in American politics, and plays an 'outsized role in the way many experience and form opinions on the most important issues facing the country.' The data show numerous ways in which Fox News-watching Republicans have radically different beliefs from non-Republicans and even Republicans who do not watch Fox News.
In many cases, Fox News-viewing Republicans are vastly different from other Americans, even from other Republicans. So when it comes to Republicans inside the FoxHole, the prospects for making progressive arguments credibly are slim. Consider the following:• 12% of those in the FoxHole believe climate change is mostly caused by humans, compared to 62% of all other Americans• 77% are very concerned about the Democratic Party moving in too socialist a direction, compared to 20% of all others• 89% express support for the Republican tax law, compared to 22% of all others• 84% support President Trump declaring a national emergency to start building a border wall, compared to 21% of all others• 20% support the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, compared to 67% of all others• 78% believe the Trump administration has accomplished more than any administration in history, compared to 17% of all others
How does all that crazy manifest itself? The pollsters also discovered that 95% of Republican Fox viewers voted for a Republican in the midterms last year. Only 88% of Republicans who do not watch Fox did. (About 15% of Fox viewers do not identify themselves as Republicans.) And among Fox viewers who are not Republicans, just 18% voted for a Republican. Among normal people-- those who are neither Republicans, nor Fox viewers, just 8% voted for a Republican running for Congress in 2018.
One of the most telling differences between those inside the FoxHole and the rest of the country isn’t even about opinion, but instead awareness of certain issues. Americans in the FoxHole are fed a steady media diet of content focused on opposing progressive policies and ideas, and as a consequence, they are highly aware of these ideas – sometimes even more than progressives themselves – resulting in a much faster calcification of opinion among conservatives that drives overall ratings for the policies in a negative direction.For example, this edition of Navigator asked Americans how much they had heard about the “Green New Deal,” a proposal to address climate change. Americans in the FoxHole are more than twice as likely than all other groups to be hearing “some” or “a lot” about the proposal (69% in the FoxHole versus 32% among everyone else, including just 33% among all Democrats). When evaluating national polling about progressive items like the Green New Deal, it should be acknowledged that opinion can often be driven by this highly aware, but relatively narrow slice of Fox News-watching Republicans.One crucial difference between the two more persuadable groups, or the two halves of the “Media Middle,” is how each one can be reached through non-Fox media. Fox News viewers who are not Republicans tend to also watch other cable news sources, such as CNN or MSNBC, with some regularity, giving progressives an opportunity to reach them with their message. Republicans who are not Fox News viewers, on the other hand, tend to be divorced not just from the Fox News echo chamber, but divorced from all cable news, largely getting their news from national broadcast, local TV, or online news sources instead. In other words: the non-Republicans can still be reached via other cable channels, but Republicans outside the FoxHole require a different approach.
