Take this little tidbit for example from the new NBC-Des Moines Register poll:
In case you didn’t watch the whole thing, he reveals that a quarter of voters told the pollster that they would vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the general election. Wow.
Meanwhile, the new CBS poll shows this:
Republican voters continue to believe Trump is their best bet to beat Joe Biden in November, even as Nikki Haley leads Joe Biden by a wider margin in a general election match-up than either Trump or Ron DeSantis. We show why in this analysis.
They are wrong. Trump is less likely to beat Biden.
There are other ideas and statements from the frontrunner that have brought criticism from Trump’s political opponents.
On immigrants: One of those is his use of the phrase “poisoning the blood of the country” when describing immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally. While most voters overall disagree with this language, eight in 10 Republican primary voters say they agree with it — and that includes majorities of both MAGA voters (97%) and non-MAGA voters (65%) in the GOP electorate.
It says everything about the GOP electorate that so many of them agree with his Hitler quotes. It’s enough to make you sick.
But there are a few who disagree with some of his Nazi rhetoric:
Other ideas divide Republican primary voters — sometimes along MAGA/non-MAGA lines.
Perhaps just as importantly, several of these ideas and statements are not disqualifying: even if Republicans disagree with Trump on these items, most are still backing him for the nomination.
Here are some examples:
On revenge or payback: Most MAGA voters want him to prosecute his opponents if he’s elected, while few non-MAGA primary voters do. That said, six in 10 Republican voters who don’t want Trump to do this are still backing him.
On relations with allies: Half of MAGA voters would have him take the U.S. out of NATO, with most other GOP primary voters opposed. But Trump enjoys wide leads among both groups, regardless of their support for NATO.
On loyalty in government: There’s less support for ideas like removing federal workers who aren’t Trump supporters; almost no one wants government officials to show loyalty to Trump over the U.S. Constitution, and there’s little backing for the idea of punishing media organizations that criticize him. Most MAGA voters don’t sign onto these either. But again, Republican voters are overwhelmingly voting for Trump, regardless of their position on each of these items…
Trump voters who are at least considering someone else look pretty similar to Trump-and-only-Trump voters on a variety of attitudes. They want to hear candidates talking about similar issues: the economy and the border. They express similar preferences about what the candidate does: most importantly, promising tax cuts, challenging “woke” ideas, and banning surgeries that change a child’s gender. And even those considering another candidate tend to say their support for Trump is “very strong” and that he has the best chance of beating Mr. Biden.
I’m sorry, if you vote for Hitler even though you disagree with “some of his policies” you are objectively pro-fascist. That’s just the way it is. The Republican Party is fascist in 2024.
Trump is going to be the nominee so these primaries are irrelevant. But they do give us a snapshot of the GOP electorate and I think we can rest assured that the vast majority of whom will vote for Trump in the general election. But there are just enough of them who say they won’t that it could make a difference in a close election, particularly if Trump continues to decompensate. There is a small but important faction within the GOP and among GOP leaning Independents who simply don’t hate Biden as much as they hate Trump. Let’s hope they continue to see this world more clearly than their fellow Republican voters.