Photo credit: Joyce N. Boghosian
President Trump speaks to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Oct. 27, on his way to campaign events in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Nevada.
Last week Donald Trump crisscrossed the country, including a stop in Wisconsin. He lamented, “all I hear about now (is) Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid.” If Wisconsin isn’t quite responding to Trump the way that he wants, perhaps a better understanding of Wisconsinites would serve him well.
The Institute of Women’s Leadership at Marquette University analyzed a snapshot of what voters across Wisconsin were worrying about in the early months of the pandemic. We focused on two questions: What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today? What is the one word that describes your feelings about life in America today?
Early on, it was is clear that Wisconsinites, like the rest of the country, were reeling from the impact of COVID-19 and thought it the “most important problem facing this country today.” Fully 2/3 of the respondents were worried about the quarantine in non-economic ways. They worried about the challenges of being “stuck inside” and “unable to socialize,” and working from home. They also worried about the impact on “our children” and “my family.” Finally, there was the psychological toll of “fear,” “anxiety” and “depression” that weighted them down. But what is particularly interesting, and troubling for the President and his party, is that only 23% of respondents were worrying about the economic hardships of the pandemic.
Sense of Chaos
COVID and the sense of chaos it has caused, continued as the theme in the responses to the “one word” that described their feelings about “life in America today.” In fact, among all participants, “chaos” reigned supreme. This was true regardless of age or gender. For women, who expressed exclusively negative words, “chaos” or a derivation of it was nearly twice as common as “sad,” “scary,” “uncertain,” and “unsettled.” For men, whose word choices were more than 95% negative, “divided” and “troubled” had a slight edge over “chaos.” Generationally, there was, again, little variance. For Boomers, “chaos” was expressed nearly twice as often as any other word. For Gen X and Millennials “divided” led the way with “fear” among Gen X, and “chaos” among Millennials close seconds. Gen Z was simply “disappointed.”
Back in spring, as our data show, Wisconsinites were already worried about COVID. Today, their worry has, likely, not subsided. As of Sunday, Wisconsin has one of the highest COVID spikes in the country (only the Dakotas are out-surging us) and Wisconsinites have experienced 1,803 deaths since the outbreak began.
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In the end, the President seems not to understand Wisconsinites. For regardless of political affiliation, on the privacy of a survey screen—not unlike in the privacy of the voting booth—what unites us is the “chaos” and “fear” created by COVID. We are tired of being “divided” by the politicization of this pandemic.
So, Mr. President, why are you surprised that “all” you hear is “Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid?” We are not.
Jean M. Grow is co-director and Andrea K. Schneider is director of the Institute of Women’s Leadership.
Data were analyzed by the IWL and collected by the Marquette University Law School Poll using an online non-probability panel that targeted the general population, age 18+. Data, allowing voters to express their concerns in their own words, were pulled three times: mid-March, April and May.
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