The downside of being bigoted, negative jerks
by digby
Yes, there is a downside! Thank goodness …
Bryan Yarde, a 25-year-old independent voter from Florida who says he leans conservative, is closely following the Republican presidential primary—and doesn’t like what he sees from the two leading candidates, businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“The nativist tendencies of Cruz and Trump are pretty atrocious,” said Mr. Yarde, adding that he would consider supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton if either man wins the GOP nomination.
The Republican primary is generating more interest than the Democratic contest, but that attention isn’t entirely good news for the party, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found. The Republican nominating fight is souring critical constituencies, including independents, Latinos, suburban women and registered voters open to supporting either party in the fall.
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The Republican contest is driving negative impressions among key voting blocs in a general election. For example, 45% of Latinos view the GOP more negatively as a result of a primary in which the leading contender, Mr. Trump, has advocated the mass deportation of millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Just 13% of Hispanics view the party more favorably.
More college-educated whites are also turning their nose up at Republicans. Half of those voters said the nominating fight has given them a less favorable impression of the GOP. Independents, suburban women and voters who are genuinely undecided about which party to support in November are all much more inclined to view the Republican Party more negatively as a result of the primary.
“I don’t know what’s happening on the Republican side—each one seems more crazy than the next,” said Joan King, 53, a swing voter from Green Bay, Wis., who says she tends to back more centrist Republicans. “I have a hard time buying that people really support Donald Trump. I think they’re just drawn to his celebrity.”
By contrast, the Democratic contest isn’t having the same impact. Some 29% of Latinos said the Democratic primary has given them a more favorable view of the party, compared with the 17% who view Democrats less favorably. Some 54% of registered voters said the Democratic primary has had no impact on how they view the party.
The poll, conducted January 9-13, included interviews with 800 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.
As you can see by that graph, moderates, independents and Latinos are really turned off. Democrats are also viewed less positively than they were but the difference between the negative attitudes toward the Dems and the Republicans is stark.
This actually makes me feel a little bit better about America. I’ve always thought that the vast majority of Americans of all political persuasions were pretty decent people just trying to raise families, do good work, live lives of meaning. This ugly, angry electorate we see at the Trump rallies (and to a lesser extent at all the others) is very disturbing. And depressing. All these people have been worked up into a frenzy of negativity and hate beyond anything I’ve seen in this country since I was a kid.
I’m glad to know that it isn’t only the left side of the dial that hasn’t succumbed to this madness, most of which has been created and stoked by cynical billionaires, avaricious grifters and media charlatans for their own purposes.
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