During his deranged campaign rally in Phoenix Tuesday night, Trump had several disparate stream of consciousness themes but what tied them all together was his profound pose as the ultimate victim. Forget about Heather Heyer, who was murdered by a Trump Nazi fan boy, Trump insisted he was the real victim. He's always pretending to be the victim. It's always been his slimy modus operandi. And it's worked for him-- to some extent-- in business and certainly works among the Republican base, which only exists to celebrate it's own victimhood. As PPP's Tom Jensen pointed out in releasing his new post-Charlottesville survey yesterday, Señor Trumpanzee's "approval rating is pretty steady in the wake of the Charlottesville attack, probably because his supporters think that whites and Christians are the most oppressed groups of people in the country... The reason Trump hasn't lost more ground for his widely panned response to the attack is probably that many of his supporters agree with some of the beliefs that led white supremacists to rally in Charlottesville in the first place. Asked what racial group they think faces the most discrimination in America, 45% of Trump voters say it's white people followed by 17% for Native Americans with 16% picking African Americans, and 5% picking Latinos. Asked what religious group they think faces the most discrimination in America, 54% of Trump voters says it's Christians followed by 22% for Muslims and 12% for Jews. There is a mindset among many Trump voters that it's whites and Christians getting trampled on in America that makes it unlikely they would abandon Trump over his 'both sides' rhetoric."Still just 11% of Americans-- including Trump voters of course-- say they "agree with the sentiment that it's possible for white supremacists and neo-Nazis to be 'very fine people,' to 69% who say that's not possible. "Almost no one in America likes neo-Nazis or white supremacists or thinks they can be good people," said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. "But Trump didn’t lose many of his voters with his post-Charlottesville comments because so many of his voters do think whites and Christians are the most oppressed groups in this country."
Robert E. Lee has a 36/24 favorability with Americans, with 40% having no opinion of him either way. He's at a 61/10 spread with Trump voters but just a 17/40 spread with Clinton voters. In a finding that says a lot about how we got to where we are today, Trump voters say they would rather have Jefferson Davis as President than Barack Obama 45/20. Obama wins that question 56/21 with the overall electorate.Things are continuing to look good for Democrats in 2018, as they lead the generic Congressional ballot 49-35. The 14 point lead for Democrats may be too good to be true though-- it's a function of a highly divided Republican base at this point. While Clinton voters say they'll vote Democratic for Congress next year 90- 4, Trump voters say they will vote Republican by only a 74-13 margin. Part of the reason Republicans have done better than expected in 2014 and 2016 is they were divided earlier in the cycle and came together by the end, we will see if that trend continues in 2018.“Democrats are very well positioned for next year’s elections,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Their voters are a lot more unified than Trump’s. His attacks on his own party’s Congressional leaders are having a very negative impact on their popularity.”
Lamar Smith voted for TrumpCare-- and says he would againDerrick Crowe is running for the Austin-San Antonio corridor seat currently occupied by the odious anti-health care fanatic Lamar Smith. This morning he reminded us that "In the 21st District, roughly 54,000 rely on the health care exchanges for health coverage. Instead of working to improve their insurance, Lamar Smith voted to kick them off health coverage altogether and add them to the 84,000 people who still lack coverage in this district under the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans' attempt to destroy President Obama's legacy would have let the rest of us get sicker, go bankrupt, and die earlier just so they could get a tax cut. Voters aren't as dumb as establishment politicians like Smith think they are. They know an attack on their lives and livelihoods when they see one. We need to get all of these people covered, period, no exceptions. That's why I support Medicare For All. Health care should be a right, not a privilege in this country." North Carolina's 5th district has the same kind of assertively backward representative in Congress, Virginia Foxx. Jenny Marshall, the progressive Blue America has endorsed in the race has a very different perspective of health care than Foxx. Jenny sent me this statement earlier today:
"I firmly believe that a repeal of Obamacare is necessary because it is crushing our health care sector," Foxx said. This is how Virginia Foxx views healthcare, in business dollars and cents rather than loss of life and personal costs. If the repeal of The ACA goes through, the CBO has estimated that 1 out of 7 people in the 5th district will loose their health insurance. These hardworking citizens need medical coverage because it is just simply unavailable through their work and too expensive to purchase on their own without help of a subsidy. The repeal of the ACA will make these already vulnerable households even more at risk in regards to their personal health and economic stability. We know that a healthier and more productive workforce is directly tied to a workforce that has access to medical care as a result of being insured. Republicans, Democrats, and Unafiliated voters are the beneficiaries of the ACA and have rallied together against its repeal but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Her lack of concern for the medical needs and financial security of the people in the 5th district and across this county is simply appalling. Enough is enough. We need to make the interim changes needed to fix the ACA and move to enact a single payer healthcare plan that provides universal healthcare for all the people living in this country.
A big part of the division among Republicans is being caused by extreme unhappiness with their Congressional leaders, perhaps driven by Donald Trump's attacks on them. Both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell now have the worst numbers we've ever seen for them. Only 16% of voters approve of the job Ryan is doing to 62% who disapprove. A big part of that is even among Trump voters he has only a 30% approval rating with 52% disapproving of him. Ryan comes out looking popular in comparison to McConnell though. His approval rating is just 9%, with 61% of voters disapproving of him. Among Trump voters he receives just a 15% approval rating to 59% disapproving of him, not all that dissimilar from his 68% disapproval with Clinton voters. The possible pitfall for Trump with the attacks on GOP Congressional leaders is disincentivizing his base to go vote for them next year.Their failed efforts on health care are a big part of what's causing Congressional Republicans problems. Only 25% of voters support the health care bill that was considered by Congress last month, to 57% who disapprove of it. Even among GOP voters there's less than majority support, with 48% in favor of it to 34% who are opposed. At this point only 33% of voters think the best path forward on health care is repealing Obamacare, to 57% who think it's keeping the current law and making fixes to it as necessary. Voters say by a 21 point margin that they're less likely to vote for a GOP member of Congress who supported the repeal bill- 46% are less likely to vote for such a person to 25% who are more likely to, with 22% saying it doesn't make a difference either way....[F]or the fourth month in a row we find a plurality of voters in support of impeaching Trump- 48% say he should be impeached to 41% who disagree. And there continues to be a significant yearning for a return to the days of President Obama- 52% of voters say they wish Obama was still President to only 39% who prefer having Trump in the White House.Trump continues to trail both Bernie Sanders (51/38) and Joe Biden (51/39) by double digits in possible 2020 match ups. PPP never found Hillary Clinton up by more than 7 points on Trump in 2016. Sanders and Biden each win over 12-14% of the folks who voted for Trump last year. Also leading Trump in hypothetical contests at this point are Elizabeth Warren (45/40), Mark Cuban (42/38), and Cory Booker and Trump Twitter Target Richard Blumenthal (42/39). Trump ties Kamala Harris at 39% each and John Delaney at 38% each.Generally speaking just 57% of Republicans want Trump to be the party's nominee again in 2020 to 29% who say they would prefer someone else. That 28 point margin for Trump against 'someone else' is the same as his 28 point lead over Mike Pence at 52/24. Both Ted Cruz (a 40 point deficit to Trump at 62/22) and John Kasich (a 47 point deficit to Trump at 68/21) are evidently weaker potential opponents than 'someone else.'
