According to two new surveys, a majority of Americans are distressed at the current state of the nation and its future; that distress coincides with a record level of support for impeaching Trump and ousting Republicans from power.
If one listens to Trump and his corporate Republicans running Congress, America is greater than at any time in its history and will only get “greater.” Of course they claim it is because they are in power and giving the people exactly what they’ve been demanding for the past eight years. Trump recently said again that he already accomplished more in 9 months than any other president in America’s 214 year history and that the people swoon when they hear his name. For their part, Republicans claim Americans desperately want the Affordable Care Act abolished, tax reform (cuts) for the rich and corporations passed tomorrow, and the Iran Nuclear Agreement scrapped with extreme prejudice.
Of course Republicans and Trump lie at the same rate most Americans use the toilet, and there are two new polls debunking every dirty lie Trump and Republicans have been spewing. The polls’ results should embolden “the resistance” because as it turns out, the majority of Americans oppose everything Trump and congressional Republicans are proposing.
Nearly half of the population are so opposed to Trump they want him impeached; congressional Republicans don’t fare any better and they are facing an existential crisis if they proceed on their present course.
First, a recent American Psychological Association (APA) poll reported that 59 percent of the population say this is the “lowest point in the nation’s history they can remember.” As if that wasn’t revealing enough, 63 percent of the people are rightfully stressed about the nation’s future and it is down to Trump and Republicans. It is noteworthy that 60 percent of respondents said they were seriously “stressed” about the social divisiveness in the country today and that too is down to dirty Don.
There is no way Trump can spin these two polls’ results to be about his predecessor or Democrats because according to a national Public Policy Polling (PPP) survey just released, 54 percent of the people wish that Barack Obama was still the President. Conversely, 56 percent of the population disapprove of everything Trump, and a record 49 percent of the people want Trump impeached and thrown out of office.
Republicans in Congress are as unpopular as Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is hanging on to an 11/44 approval rating with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-MN) at 22/60; Congress under Republican control stands at a noteworthy 9/77 approval rating.
The hateful attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act is only one of the reasons congressional Republicans’ political lives are in serious danger. Sixty-one percent of the people want the ACA left right where it is and for Congress to do what it takes to fix it where and when necessary.
The GOP tax reform proposals are equally opposed by the people for the same reason Democrats reject them; they favor the rich and corporations. The PPP survey showed that by a 15-point margin, voters say they are unlikely “to vote for a member of Congress next year who supported the Republicans’ tax reform plan.” The PPP poll revealed that barely 29 percent of voters support the Congressional Republicans’ tax reform plan, and even Trump voters oppose it by 39 percent. A majority of voters, 53 percent, know the tax plan only helps the rich and 28 percent think it might help middle class families; only 7 percent think it will help low income Americans who likely don’t pay income taxes because their income it too low.
Trump isn’t helping congressional Republicans by threatening to scrap the Iran Nuclear deal with the P5+1 nations. By a 19-point margin voters say they’d be “less likely to vote for any member of Congress who voted to take action that could cause the collapse of the deal.” Just last week Trump ignored the facts, the other P5 nations’ leaders, and his intelligence-military experts’ counsel and “decertified” Iran’s compliance with the deal. Every other P5 nation and American intelligence agency, including Trump’s Defense Secretary and Secretary of State assured him Iran is in “full compliance” with the agreement.
Overall, there isn’t much about Trump, like Republicans, that Americans accept as anything remotely normal or presidential. Well over half the population say he’s dishonest and a solid majority (52 percent) “come right out and say Trump is a liar.” That is particularly true when it comes to Trump’s bovine excrement mantra that only he tells the truth and the media are liars publishing “fake news.”
The good news for journalism, and our struggling democracy, is that “Trump isn’t succeeding” with his “fake news” bullshit.
The “voters trust each of the 6 media outlets Trump has attacked the most by a 15 to 18 point margin.” According to the poll, the people trust NBC, ABC, CBS, the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post more than Trump “when pitted against each other.”
In fact, “transparency,” or the lack thereof, is a major issue for Trump among the voters and who can blame them; they already know Trump is a liar. A solid majority of voters, 60 percent, say he needs to release his tax returns and 60 percent say he’s failed to deliver on any part of his “core campaign promise to Make America Great Again.”
Even if a person doesn’t put much faith in polls and surveys, the APA and PPP results both reveal that contrary to prevailing opinion, Trump is not fooling the majority of the people; including a fair percentage of Republicans. His zealot religious and racist base believes everything he says because they are religious and racist zealots lusting for a man-god to make America white and Christian; there is no hope for them.
The results of the polls should embolden the resistance, and particularly the media, to press on because now it is relatively apparent that the majority of the population are “the resistance” and greater than Trump or his Republican allies can withstand. It is noteworthy that the PPP poll was conducted October 27-29 and the APA survey from August 2 to August 31, prior to recent revelations about Trump’s Russia problem. Trump and congressional Republicans should be just as terrified of the people as they are Special Counsel Robert Mueller.