Trump approval ratings thread 1.6
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #2800 on: November 04, 2020, 04:55:58 PM »


pbower2A makes the same maps every Election cycle as Moderator, he made the same map in 2016 as well

Indeed, we had Obama 1.x and 2.x threads for his first and second terms. Thankfully, it looks like the next thread will be Biden approval ratings thread 1.0 and not Trump approval ratings thread 2.0.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #2801 on: November 04, 2020, 05:02:39 PM »


Not if NEB 2 Elector votes for Trump and it ends in a tie

pbower2A makes the same maps every Election cycle as Moderator, he made the same map in 2016 as well

Indeed, we had Obama 1.x and 2.x threads for his first and second terms. Thankfully, it looks like the next thread will be Biden approval ratings thread 1.0 and not Trump approval ratings thread 2.0.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2802 on: November 05, 2020, 08:48:03 AM »

We still haven't heard from him and his inaccurate prediction

Here I am. Strange things can happen late.

Trump and the Republican Party did make some clever, if distressing, ads late in the campaign that (in Trump's case in Florida) conflated Joe Biden to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez directed at Cuban-American and Venezuelan-American voters who might not responded to lame ads by Romney against Obama in 2012, but worked well in 2020.

In Michigan I saw ads for the Republican Party late in the campaign that went to this message.

Quote
(Female voiceover):

The election is coming up. Let's look at the Democrats.

The Democrats will raise my taxes. I can't afford that.

They will take away the Trump tax cuts and that is not what I need when my husband is looking for work. I can't afford that.

Democrats are on the side of looters and rioters. We need to support our police. 

They want to bring new environmental regulations that will kill jobs.

I'm voting Republican.

Late ads directed at the few remaining swing voters can change minds, especially if the appeal is to basic fears and even one of the nominees has created the problem (look at all the social discord when Obama was President).   
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2803 on: November 05, 2020, 09:08:10 AM »

When the electoral results are available in in full, I hope to connect approval and disapproval numbers to the electoral results. Trump got horrid approval numbers, and he lost (or is about to lose) his bid for re-election. Maybe he and the GOP was able to convince some voters that America needs to maintain (and even expand) tax cuts largely for the super-rich, prevent efforts to achieve environmental reform, and endorse brutal enforcement of the law even against those who dissent with the Great and Infallible Leader. Trump should have lost -- and seems to have done so.   

Such will be a good wrap-up suitable to some analysis and commentary. At this point the approval numbers indicate a terribly-failed President. He was not a competent administrator.  He well served only a small portion of the American population while hurting much of the rest. He bungled the discourse on ethnic divides, going against the mainstream.

No, there are not "good people on both sides" on violent racism any more than there are good people on both sides on arson, drug trafficking, child molestation, or armed robbery. It is possible to say that he misstated his position and that he meant it only about people who want to keep statues to defenders of slavery up in Southern cities. (Imagine that you are a black child in some large Southern city and you see a statue to some military or political figure of the Confederate States of America that existed solely to keep your black ancestors in bondage). Those are questionable heroes. We could replace those with heroes of subsequent American wars -- WWI, WWII, Korea, and both Gulf Wars.

Mississippi has replaced its Confederate-informed flag with a more wholesome magnolia.

Above all, Donald Trump bungled the response to COVID-19, creating a muddle for the US as a whole when it needed decisive leadership that could have saved countless lives. The amazing reality about the 2020 Presidential election is that Trump came close to winning re-election.     
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #2804 on: November 05, 2020, 01:28:13 PM »

I just wanted to point out, TX, FL, and GA are R states for a reason, D's will never get a 413,  EC map, 2nd amendment rights and guns are essential to even AA and Latinos in Deep South. That's why MT, KS and SC went R too

AA and Latinos are liberal in North on guns due to gang violance but not in the Deep South as well as in OH and Mahoning County. That why it stayed R with plenty of AA voters
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2805 on: November 05, 2020, 01:57:11 PM »

I just wanted to point out, TX, FL, and GA are R states for a reason, D's will never get a 413,  EC map, 2nd amendment rights and guns are essential to even AA and Latinos in Deep South. That's why MT, KS and SC went R too

AA and Latinos are liberal in North on guns due to gang violence but not in the Deep South as well as in OH and Mahoning County. That why it stayed R with plenty of AA voters

There were polls. Texas had conflicting polls, and Texas got closer than it was since the 1990's. The observation that Texas is becoming more like America as a whole due to people moving in from more liberal areas should suggest trouble for the GOP in Texas over the next years. Georgia is becoming much more urban and better educated; see also North Carolina, let alone Virginia.

Southern blacks may be more culturally conservative than Northern blacks, but they are far to the Left of the white populations of their states. You tell me whether blacks in any part of the USA are attracted to 'militia' movements.

In contrast, just look at Iowa. It used to be a relatively liberal state, and it has clearly drifted rightward. This state voted for Dukakis in 1988, which shows how liberal it once was. That is over. Iowa as the "new West Virginia" of the Midwest?

States move due to demographic change -- often people moving in or out, and changes in economic reality. West Virginia used to be reliably D except in R landslides like 1972 (it split on Eisenhower) when coal mining was a reliable source of well-paying jobs and the then-powerful United Mine Workers dominated politics. Now that the coal seams are largely mined out, West Virginia working-class people have had to find work elsewhere -- often out of state.     
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Hindsight was 2020
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« Reply #2806 on: November 07, 2020, 12:29:21 PM »

Welp this thread is going to be useless now lol
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
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« Reply #2807 on: November 07, 2020, 03:50:42 PM »

Welp this thread is going to be useless now lol

It might be fun to see how far through the floor lame duck lion in winter Trump's ratings can go.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2808 on: November 07, 2020, 04:23:21 PM »

Welp this thread is going to be useless now lol

We may get to see how lame this Lame Duck can be.
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« Reply #2809 on: November 07, 2020, 11:33:06 PM »

Welp this thread is going to be useless now lol

For reference purposes it might be. Maybe pbrower2a or someone following closely could  post some highlights of this thread, like approval highs and lows? Like what era did Trump's approval was at its best and worst? Like what states average approval for Trump was highest and lowest? And so on?
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2810 on: November 08, 2020, 08:31:12 AM »
« Edited: November 08, 2020, 08:34:21 AM by pbrower2a »

Welp this thread is going to be useless now lol

For reference purposes it might be. Maybe pbrower2a or someone following closely could  post some highlights of this thread, like approval highs and lows? Like what era did Trump's approval was at its best and worst? Like what states average approval for Trump was highest and lowest? And so on?

I expect a post-mortem on this catastrophically-failed Presidency (and it is exactly that). Approval numbers after the election may show some correlation to the vote in the states.

Maybe Trump did better because he and the GOP ran some "you may hate Donald Trump, the GOP,  and our agenda -- but you will be sorry about voting against us" ads. Maybe Trump won Florida because of ads that connected (speciously but effectively) Joe Biden to Fidel and Raul Castro  and to Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro). To these I see one bright side: it is a good thing that the Biden Administration not get cozy with Maduro or Raul Castro.

It is possible to sell a very bad product such as pornography, cigarettes, or hard liquor -- and that is before I discuss awful stuff that poor people end up with because they can't afford something better. Donald Trump is a bad product as a politician, nearly all vice and nearly no virtue. One likes his agenda or one doesn't. Donald Trump has been a master of selling his personality, whatever one can get out of that.

I hate his guts. I doubt that anyone ever saw me harboring any respect for his personality or his conduct. I can think of people like John Kasich or Jeb Bush, with whom one might have disagreed without hating as I hate Trump. I wouldn't be so wound up. I thought, and still do, that the right vehicle for conservatism is a conservative who differs from Barack Obama in only one important aspect of our 44th President: being a conservative instead of a liberal. (Ethnicity does not matter!) That would be a legitimately good President. Do you not believe me? Just take a look at this map:

The definitive moderate Republican may have been Dwight Eisenhower, and I have heard plenty of Democrats praise the Eisenhower Presidency. He went along with Supreme Court rulings that outlawed segregationist practices, stayed clear of the McCarthy bandwagon, and let McCarthy implode.


Image Link
 
gray -- did not vote in 1952 or 1956
white -- Eisenhower twice, Obama twice
deep blue -- Republican all four elections
light blue -- Republican all but 2008 (I assume that greater Omaha went for Ike twice)
light green -- Eisenhower once, Stevenson once, Obama never
dark green -- Stevenson twice, Obama never
pink -- Stevenson twice, Obama once

No state voted Democratic all four times, so no state is in deep red.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #2811 on: November 10, 2020, 12:35:38 AM »

Trump was closer to 50% than at 40%, due to fact unemployment is going back down to 5% average, it's currently at 6.6%, that's why Rs aren't dead politically with a 413 map
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #2812 on: November 10, 2020, 12:36:52 AM »

I am repeating myself in these threads, because Rs aren't dead politically to deserve a 413 EC landslide defeat
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emailking
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« Reply #2813 on: November 10, 2020, 01:00:49 AM »

What I'm wondering is, do we need to add 4 points to his remaining approvals given what just happened, or are we ok as long as it's all adults?
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Vaccinated Russian Bear
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« Reply #2814 on: November 10, 2020, 10:51:50 AM »

What I'm wondering is, do we need to add 4 points to his remaining approvals given what just happened, or are we ok as long as it's all adults?

In my opinion - yes. Not only to his approvals, but to his/GOP policies. They are probably more popular than pollster and media pretend them to be. The opposite is true for Dem policies. And don't forget that Gold Standard polls that used by FREE press were very bad this year.


By the way, according to 538 he has been around -12 most of his term, occasionally hitting -5. If you correct this, he's likely been by 5-8% underwater occasionally hitting 0. Still bad, but just barely worse than Obama I guess. Imagine the world where media can't falsely claim that Trump is much more hated then Obama. Image the voter perception of Trump in the world where CNN didn't feed voters with Biden +16 nationally and +17 in WI.

Gi! Fake News won this time around.
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BudgieForce
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« Reply #2815 on: November 10, 2020, 10:21:29 PM »

I know we're not supposed to believe polls anymore, but I would really like a poll to see if Trump's recent behavior has hurt him in any way.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2816 on: November 11, 2020, 09:48:10 AM »
« Edited: November 11, 2020, 07:00:55 PM by pbrower2a »

A post-mortem would be welcome. Sample questions for persons over 14:

1. Did you vote in the 2020 Presidential election

....a. Yes
....b. No (but over 18)
....c. I was too young to vote (if so go to Question #3)
....d. no response/other (if d, go to Question #3)

2. Did you vote for

....a. Donald Trump and Michael Pence, the Republican nominees
....b. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominees
....c. someone else
....d. I voted in other races, but not for the President
....e. I don't remember or I refuse to say. 

3. Do you believe that the official results of the 2020 Presidential election

....a. fairly represent the will of the American people
....b. do not fairly represent the will of the American people
....c. no opinion/undecided

4. Do you believe that claims of electoral fraud by one side or another

.... a. reflect reality
.... b. do not reflect reality (if so, then go to Question #6)
.... c. no opinion/undecided (if so, then go to Question #6)

5.  Was the electoral fraud that you think happened

.... a. offsetting (both sides did it)
.... b. too slight to make a difference
.... c. on the net helped Joe Biden
.... d. on the net helped Donald Trump
.... e. no opinion/undecided

6. Is your overall assessment of the Trump Presidency

.... a. strong approval
.... b. more approval than disapproval
.... c. about even
.... d. more disapproval than approval
.... e. strong disapproval
.... f. no opinion/undecided

7. As we all know, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris promised a great change from the direction of this country from what Donald Trump and Mike Pence promised. However you voted recently do you see what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and their ability to bring change, and the content of the change that they aspire to bring:

.... a. strongly favorable
.... b. favorable
.... c. somewhere in between
.... d. unfavorable
.... e. unfavorable
.... f. no opinion/don't know

8. Although it is a long time away, how do you expect to vote for President in 2024

.... a. for the Republicans for President and Vice-President
.... b. for the Democrats for President and Vice-President
.... c. for an independent or Third Party pair of nominees
.... d. I do not expect to be voting in 2024
.... e. I do not know


9. What is your age?

.... a. at least 14 but under 18
.... b. 18 to 25
.... c. 26 to 40
.... d. 41 to 54
.... e. 55 to 64
.... f. 65 or older
.... g. refused to answer.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2817 on: November 11, 2020, 10:21:37 AM »
« Edited: November 11, 2020, 11:01:02 AM by pbrower2a »

Trump was closer to 50% than at 40%, due to fact unemployment is going back down to 5% average, it's currently at 6.6%, that's why Rs aren't dead politically with a 413 map

Trump lost. Maybe he did better with the economy than one could have expected despite the effects of COVID-19. For many, how well the economy works (creating jobs) matters far more than does his fascistic antics. Trump would have come close to winning even had he started pogroms, which says much about the concerns that people have for jobs and 'food on the table'. Remember: Adolf Hitler, who did far worse things than Trump, was popular among German gentiles and would have probably won free elections even he let the Centre, Nationalists, and Social Democrats challenge him in 1936 or so.

Note well: In case you have any lingering delusion of the reliable superiority of the common man over other parts of humanity, especially of segments of humanity by sect or ethnic group within the common man, the 2020 election should disabuse you of that. Donald Trump got more support from white working people than from among the well-educated Model Minorities and perhaps even well-educated white people. Donald Trump is a thoroughly-horrid person, and his personal vices are well known. This is not a partisan statement. The last two Republican nominees who lost to Barack Obama, Barack Obama, and of course Joe Biden himself, are far better persons than Donald Trump. People extremely self-righteous about their religious devotion often voted for Trump despite his sexual misconduct that makes Bill Clinton look like the ideal of a Mormon missionary by contrast. Trump's business dealings and his personal conduct, as well as that of his campaign (a fish stinks from the head, folks) also demonstrate the moral rot that Donald Trump is.

If you want illustration of how capable the common man is of evil, then remember that the most dangerous people of time, political leaders who spurred genocide were able to find common people to be perpetrators. Stalin's gulags and Hitler's murder camps relied upon the common people to do the worst possible, including firing machine guns at helpless people whom those people had just herded to a shooting pit, introducing Zyklon-B into a fake shower, or having trained dogs dispatch emaciated prisoners. Brutal guards under the Japanese in World War II? The barely-learned people who killed in the name of creating a new and glorious Kampuchea under the Khmer Rouge?  Genocides in Rwanda and Turkey? Likewise. The people attending the sick spectacle of an auto-da-fe or the execution of an alleged sorcerer in which someone was literally burned at the stake were not largely physicians, attorneys, poets, and university professors. Add to this, the process of dragooning slave laborers for the nightmarish plantations and keeping slaves in bondage involved the common man as captors of new slaves and catchers of escaped slaves.

I have no illusion that we Americans are any better than the Spaniards who celebrated the immolation of some converso who lapsed by refusing to eat pork or out of sentimentality did some elements of celebrating Passover, the Turks who butchered Armenians or Greeks during or soon after World War II, citizens of the Third Reich or the Soviet Union, or Rwanda not so long ago. Human goodness requires reinforcement within the educational system and the mass culture, and when that  reinforcement disappears or is short-circuited, then all Hell can break loose. We are just lucky that Donald Trump was not as adept a despot as he dreamed of being.

End of rant.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #2818 on: November 12, 2020, 04:03:14 PM »

The only sector of the economy that is damaged is the sports industry which is China made anyways. Nike town is Headquarters in Hong Kong. Bars, Stadiums and Universities all sponsors athletes.

There is a silver lining to this sports not recovering as we thought it would in the Recession, we aren't a sports dependant economy anylonger.  We don't know when sports is going to return to normal. Sports memorabilia is collecting dust and most of its retail stores have closed, due to no one buying shoes.

The rest of the economy aside from universities and Libraries are thriving in 6.6 and retail and factories are hiring, they have the protection you need to work safely, except for restaurants
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Bootes Void
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« Reply #2819 on: November 12, 2020, 06:02:48 PM »

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Rep Jessica
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« Reply #2820 on: November 12, 2020, 06:59:18 PM »

I wish there was a poll on Trumps approval now.
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #2821 on: November 12, 2020, 07:05:01 PM »

I wish there was a poll on Trumps approval now.

Actually the two weekly trackers (Ipsos and YouGov/Economist) should be out by now.  I completely forgot about them during the election itself.  Let me check and I'll post something.
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #2822 on: November 12, 2020, 07:10:14 PM »

The Economist/YouGov weekly tracker, Nov. 8-10, 1500 RV, including 802 Biden voters and 599 Trump voters

All RV:

Approve 46 (+1)
Disapprove 51 (-3)

Strongly approve 32 (nc)
Strongly disapprove 45 (-4)


Biden voters:

Approve 3
Disapprove 97

Strongly approve 1
Strongly disapprove 92


Trump voters:

Approve 95
Disapprove 4

Strongly approve 72
Strongly disapprove 1
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GeorgiaModerate
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« Reply #2823 on: November 12, 2020, 07:14:13 PM »

Ipsos Core Political Data (weekly), Nov. 6-10, 1363 adults including 1169 RV

Adults:

Approve 39 (-2)
Disapprove 56 (+3)

Strongly approve 23 (-1)
Strongly disapprove 43 (nc)


RV:

Approve 40 (-2)
Disapprove 57 (+3)

Strongly approve 25 (-1)
Strongly disapprove 44 (-1)

So Ipsos has a very different picture than The Economist does.
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #2824 on: November 12, 2020, 09:32:46 PM »
« Edited: November 15, 2020, 10:46:51 AM by pbrower2a »

Well, here are the results




Somehow Georgia and North Carolina are undecided, but as I see it, the leads are large enough that no recounts are going to change the crude numbers significantly. Georgia is a bare win for Biden and North Carolina is a bare win for Trump, as I see it. Thus

J. Biden, K. Harris (D) 305 electoral votes
D. Trump, M. Pence (r- INC) 232 electoral votes


decided by 1% or less saturation 2 --marginal wins
decided by 1% or more but less than 5% saturation 3 -- weak wins
decided by 5% or more but less than 10% saturation 5 -- strong wins
decided by 10% or more saturation 7 -- overpowering wins

A few comments:

1. All states have 'landed' into the categories that they will stay in. A few states, most notably California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, and Ohio have 4% or more of their vote outstanding. The vote outstanding in those states (as of November 12) are presumably almost entirely from absentee voters in urban areas. Except for Ohio these are in states that are already non-close (10% or higher) wins for Biden, so none of those could be category-changers. The 4% of the vote out in Ohio would have to go about 90% for Biden for Ohio to go from 'close to being close' to 'close". Ohio remains in the 'strong Trump'    

Only eight states were decided by 5% or less, and I am guessing the often wayward Second Congressional districts of Maine and Nebraska. That is 125 of 538 electoral votes. The rest of the country wasn't really close.

If I am in the foreign intelligence service of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Russian Federation or the People's Republic of China, I would see a map like this and see a country grossly unstable and potential prey for mischief. If conquering the United States is effectively impossible, then splintering it into warring entities (think of the former Yugoslavia) looks much easier. If I am in the foreign intelligence service of such a country as Germany, India, Japan, or the UK and prefer a solid USA as a reliable ally I would be concerned about the polarization. Considering that the D-R split is on cultural lines almost as severe as those that rifted the former Yugoslavia, I would see great opportunity if I wanted the one great superpower to disintegrate.

I see another parallel in Spain in the 1930's, where large parts of the country were about as modern in attitudes of the time as... well, New England... and others had attitudes characteristic of the late middle ages. Spanish reactionaries accepted only one modernity: technology, and that is far from enough for getting along with people with modern sensibilities. That modernity was adequate for the victory of Francisco Franco. America may not have much of a radical Left, but it certainly has a significant, fascist Right.

3. The map is amazingly like that of 2016, with only five states and one Congressional district changing sides (and I am calling Georgia for Biden). This is very close to what I would have expected with an even shift of 1.6% of the popular vote from Trump to Biden. The voters dying off or becoming unable to vote due to debility from 2016 were almost entirely over 55, and those voters (it is about the same for the Silent Generation born 1925 to 1942, Boomers born between 1943 and 1960, and the first five years of Generation X born between 1961 and 1981, using the definitions of Howe and Strauss) were about 5% more R than D and new voters replacing them (almost entirely Millennial adults under 40) are about 20% more D than R. Figuring that the potential age-span of voters is about 60 years, and about 1.6% of the voters from the last Presidential election dies off or goes too senile to vote each year, that is about a 1.6 shift if nothing else really changes.

That may be the best explanation. That would have been enough to swing Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the election from the 2016 election to the 2020 election, and those states went from bare wins for Trump to bare wins for Biden. Biden may not have obvious youth appeal, but Trump does nothing to offset the D drift among Millennial voters. Trump did hold Florida and its 29 electoral votes -- only to lose instead those of Arizona (11), Georgia (16), and Nebraska's Second Congressional District (1) instead. That is one electoral vote short of a wash.

4. Here are two approval polls from fully after the election:

Ipsos Core Political Data (weekly), Nov. 6-10, 1363 adults including 1169 RV

Adults:

Approve 39 (-2)
Disapprove 56 (+3)

Strongly approve 23 (-1)
Strongly disapprove 43 (nc)


RV:

Approve 40 (-2)
Disapprove 57 (+3)

Strongly approve 25 (-1)
Strongly disapprove 44 (-1)

So Ipsos has a very different picture than The Economist does.


Obviously one typically had to register to vote, and not all who registered to vote did so. 57% disapproval is hideous, suggesting a political failure. The 43% strongly disapproving of President Trump were never going to vote for him, and their attitudes range from seeing him as at least an abject failure to  (well, I will spare us all any graphic language). Half of those registered voters, if they represent actual voters, still voted for him if they disapproved of his Presidency. Was it of the personality or the results?


Another pollster has actual voters as the measure, and those are close (why should one expect otherwise) to the electoral results:

The Economist/YouGov weekly tracker, Nov. 8-10, 1500 RV, including 802 Biden voters and 599 Trump voters

All RV:

Approve 46 (+1)
Disapprove 51 (-3)

Strongly approve 32 (nc)
Strongly disapprove 45 (-4)


Biden voters:

Approve 3
Disapprove 97

Strongly approve 1
Strongly disapprove 92


Trump voters:

Approve 95
Disapprove 4

Strongly approve 72
Strongly disapprove 1



In this case, disapproval of Trump was close to the electoral result in Biden votes.

5. As with Obama going into 2012, so I figured it would be so with Trump in 2020: the best predictor of the electoral result would be 100-disapproval. I could not imagine any metric better for predicting either the nationwide result than this number. An incumbent President, whether a good one by most non-ideological measures or a horrid one by most non-ideological measures, has control of the agenda so that he can have a good chance of winning undecided voters as election time approaches. An incumbent politician of any kind whose approval numbers are 43 approve and 45 disapprove rather early has plenty of opportunity to get 50% of the vote in the next election by supporting popular legislation in his bailiwick and having a spirited campaign. But get disapproval over 51 at any point, and you have trouble. Coming back from such a number or despite facing such disapproval numbers is difficult-to-highly unlikely.

6. I was one of those who saw Trump crashing and burning in a landslide -- something in the range of 413 electoral votes. As it turns out, Trump did far better than 100-disapproval just a couple months ago suggested. I saw him as a failure in the league of Hoover in 1932 and Carter in 1980, if for different reasons. I could easily say of him "I hate his guts" as I rarely do of any political figure short of any of the three emperors-in-all-but name of North Korea, Haile Mengistu, Pol Pot, either Duvalier, Idi Amin, Satan Hussein, either Assad, or al-Baghdadi.

I have compared the character of Donald Trump to the most incontrovertibly-infamous three Roman Emperors for corruption, cruelty, incompetence, and sexual depravity: Caligula, Nero, and Commodus. Imperial Rome was a corrupt society in the extreme, and Presidents of the United States on the whole are far better than the lot of Imperatores Romanorum. Trump better fits as a Roman Emperor than a President of the United States for his intemperance and his despotic tendencies.

7. So how did Trump make it closer than I expected? He must have convinced many that even if they hated his guts they would be wise to vote for him... almost certainly out of fear of crime in the streets, left-wing terrorism, socialism as practiced under Fidel/Raul Castro or Hugo Chavez/Nicolas Maduro, and a faltering economy. Of course I give credit to Barack Obama for the seven-year boom going into the Trump Presidency; of course I like the civic peace that was the norm under Obama; of course I prefer scandal-free public and personal life of the President and his administration; of course I prefer a President who defers to science and expertise instead of gut feelings. I fault the President for his bungled treatment of COVID-19. I consider a vile critter whom I would never want in my midst. I despise his serial adultery and his disrespect for our service personnel, current and former. As someone with a disability that messes up my life, I have nothing but contempt for anyone who mocks disabilities. Anyone who can say that there are good people on both sides of a divide between violent fascists and... well, anyone who stands for the virtues needed in a democratic society to keep it democratic tears at democracy.   But even more, I can only think ill of someone who has bragged about grabbing women by their crotches.

OK, Donald Trump is about as pure an example of Homo oeconomicus, the person has his own gain and indulgence above all else in life, as anyone who has ever gotten so high in the political arena. He knows something that most of us don't want to admit: that the highest principle that many have is their economic lives, and that they will do odious things and align with odious persons and causes to that end. His campaign exploited that quite competently.

8. The observation that Texas is becoming increasingly like America as a whole in its politics is well justified. It seems to be going the opposite direction of Iowa and Ohio. Iowa and Ohio moved slightly from the high-single-digit margins that I associate with Trump in 2016, but Texas moved more to the Left than just about any state (OK, Maine at-large, Minnesota, and New Hampshire). Except that Texas will likely have 40 electoral votes in 2014 I would not speak of this.

          


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