Republican Voters Against Trump (RVAT) has posted a new ad pointedly suggesting that with Donald Trump’s history he could not even get hired at your local mall.
“Would you buy a used car from this man” entered popular culture in the 1960 election. This RVAT ad is another version of that famous attack. It may work against Donald Trump. And it may not. The popular vote spread in 1960 was less than one percentage point (just over 100k votes), even though Sen. John F. Kennedy won in the Electoral College by 303-219 votes. (Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia won 15.) So, how effective was it even in the pre-internet stone age?
Donald Trump lost the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020, but the electoral vote spread was nearly the same as 1960 in each. It’s just that the count fell Trump’s way in 2016 (and against the country’s international standing).
Who knows? Maybe the the approach will work this time. Trump’s support has nowhere to go but down. It’s just that as the late Paul Weyrich observed, Republican chances in elections go up as the voting population goes down. There’s no rooom for Democrats slacking off. Too much is on the line.
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