Only 18 months in
by digby
It took Nixon 6 years to be this loathed and despised:
Trump is as strongly disliked as President Richard Nixon was when he resigned the presidency 44 years ago this week. Back then, 45% of people said Nixon was doing a poor job as president in a Harris poll.
Among Democrats, the intensity of the dislike toward Trump is even deeper today than it was against Nixon back in 1974. Back in 1974, 70% of those who said they voted for Democrat George McGovern in 1972 (37% of the sample) gave Nixon a poor rating. That’s 10 percentage points below the 80% of Democrats (35% of the Marist sample) who give Trump a poor rating today.
What’s so interesting is that even though a majority of people didn’t strongly dislike Nixon, it’s not like they wanted to stay him in office. The Harris poll back in 1974 found that 56% of Americans wanted him impeached and removed from office compared with only 34% who didn’t want that to happen. Among McGovern voters, it was 83%. Clearly, Americans didn’t like Nixon, but it didn’t boil over into strong dislike in the same way it does with Trump.
The intensity factor goes both ways with Trump, though. While as many Americans strongly dislike Trump today as they did Nixon back in 1974, a lot more love Trump today than loved Nixon in 1974. Just 7% of Americans said that Nixon was doing an excellent job in the last Harris poll taken before he left office. That’s far lower than the 20% who give Trump an excellent rating now.
The love for Trump now among Republicans is also considerably greater than it was for Nixon in 1974. Among those who were going to vote for a Republican for Congress in 1974 and had voted in 1972 (26% of the sample), only 20% gave Nixon an excellent rating. That’s far less than the 49% of Republicans (27% of the sample) who give Trump an excellent rating today.
The love and dislike Trump elicits has proven to be a positive and a negative for him. It’s been a positive because so few Republican lawmakers have been willing to abandon him given they feel he is beloved by the base. Additionally, it has helped Trump from falling too far below an overall approval rating of 40%.
The number of Americans who hold strong negative feelings towards Trump is, however, significantly greater than the number who hold strong positive feelings.
In fact, it’s record breaking how many give Trump a poor rating this early in his presidency.
He’s never given a moment’s thought to trying to appeal to anyone who doesn’t already worship him. Having the instincts of a tyrant, he believes his cult is legion and that he can dominate by sheer force. And with the help of his henchmen in the right wing media and th congress along with the support of his foreign allies, he just might pull it off.
The one thing that might change all this is the Democrats winning huge in November. The wingnuts love to be victims but they respect a winner. If his “dominance” proves to be a bunch of hot air, some of his followers and elected officials may realize that his con is played out and move along.
Read this twitter thread for more insights on Nixon’s fall. I don’t think people realize just how precipitous it was:
Nixon, Watergate and Partisan Opinion. This topic comes up often enough these days that I think it worthwhile to lay out the facts in some detail in hopes of clarifying how partisans and the public at large reacted and when. /1 pic.twitter.com/WByUb3I7lc— Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) August 12, 2018
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