Nothing can shake them
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Here was Trump’s economy in 2020. Massive unemployment, food lines, tens of thousands of deaths with no end in sight.
He only cares about himself. And they love him for it. They love him so, so much
Michael Tomasky took a look at this issue today and it’s mind-boggling:
Politico and Morning Consult asked respondents a series of questions about all the major economic legislation Biden has signed. Majorities know little or nothing at all about the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS act, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act. And get this: While 40 percent said Biden has done more than Trump on infrastructure, 37 percent said Trump had done more. In January, NBC found that Trump has a 22-point advantage over Biden on the question of whom voters trust more with the economy—up 15 points from the same poll in 2020.
How can this possibly be? Fine, we know that most people pay scant attention to politics. But even scant attention should produce some knowledge. I pay scant attention to pop culture events aimed at people younger than I am, but even I know that Drake and Kendrick Lamar are fighting and that Kendrick appears to have public opinion on his side. Stuff seeps through.
It’s not just Fox, unfortunately:
As for the mainstream, “liberal” media, they’ll report on these things, but they’ll usually do so in a way that gives plenty of space to views from Republicans like Rubio. Read, for example, this Associated Press report on Biden’s Wisconsin visit. Its first half is largely positive toward Biden. But then it quotes RNC Chair Michael Whatley and the Wisconsin House Republican in whose district the event occurred and describes what Trump was up to that day.
Yes, the AP, and all mainstream journalism, is supposed to be balanced. But it’s also supposed to be accurate. Whatley was quoted as saying, in part, that “manufacturing has stalled, and family farms are shuttering,” as if these things are Biden’s fault. Actually, manufacturing jobs are higher under Biden than Trump, which it took me about four seconds to ascertain. And while the family farm is in decline, it has been for many years: There are a lot of reasons for this, several of them centered around the lobbying power of corporate agribusiness.
Trump voters know all this they just won’t admit it because they adore Trump. It’s really that simple. So it’s all about that small slice of the electorate that’s persuadable and they are mostly the people who aren’t paying close attention and are simply floating on the zeitgeist created by the media that says Trump is this vital man articulating the outrages of our time while Biden is an old, tired, cipher plodding along with a bunch of boring policies. It’s possible that Biden can reach some of them by relentlessly pushing the economic argument and hoping that local media will make up for the lack of national attention. But there’s little guarantee that any traditional approach will work in this environment.
There are also a few persuadable Republicans who care about abortion rights, democracy and are upset that Trump is a criminal but many of them are women and they are under pressure from people around them to vote the straight GOP ticket. There is no doubt the campaign is going to be focusing on them like a laser. They are key and the economic argument could have an effect in combination with the rest of the agenda.
It’s depressing to read that comment from the Wisconsin voter in the screenshot at the top. The guy knows Biden did it. He just loves Trump so much that nothing Biden could do for him personally will shake him. This is not about politics or government. It’s a cult and they worship Donald Trump. I don’t think they can be deprogrammed.