Official White House photo by Tia Dufour
Pres. Donald J. Trump signs an executive order with Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (left) and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (right).
The good news for many of us right now is the mounting evidence of a major shift in politics that appears on track to finally end the most nationally destructive presidency in American history.
It feels wrong to celebrate, though, when the reasons for such hope are the continuing horrors of Donald Trump’s failed national leadership responsible for nearly 140,000 American deaths with no end in sight in an out-of-control national pandemic and reducing a successful U.S. economy to depression rubble.
Besides, after the shocking 2016 election of the most unqualified demagogue ever nominated by any legitimate political party, Americans aren’t about to take for granted that Trump won’t be re-elected no matter what the polls say.
Take Nothing for Granted
No Democrats want anyone to take that for granted either. During the worst year in our lives, it’s never been more important for every decent American to do everything possible to elect a president and U.S. Senate committed to working together on our behalf instead of serving the personal interests of a corrupt, racist president.
But there’s no reason everyone shouldn’t feel good about the progress we’re making toward restoring competent national leadership with all the polls showing Joe Biden increasing his double-digit lead nationally and pulling ahead in crucial battleground states Trump won in 2016—Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina.
Amy Walter, national editor of the respected Cook Political Report that both parties look to for first-rate political analysis, says: “The president is in a very, very deep hole, and I’m not quite sure how he gets out of it. He is taking with him Senate and House candidates. Instead of just a slight drag, the president is tying anchors around the ankles of Republican candidates.”
But weren’t the polls all wrong in 2016? Actually, they weren’t. And that’s just one of the reasons 2020 is unlikely to be 2016 all over again. It’s easy to forget that Hillary Clinton won nearly three million more votes in 2016 than Trump did. The presidential election is the only election in our democracy where the candidate who receives the most votes might not be the winner. An archaic, flawed electoral college system elected the two most recent Republican presidents even though their Democratic opponents received more votes.
|
|
Overwhelming Disapproval
In addition, New York Times reporter Nate Cohn recently did the math and determined Biden’s double-digit lead over Trump is so much greater than Clinton’s lead over Trump in their final pre-election polls that if the polls were exactly as wrong as they were four years ago Biden would win nationally by seven percentage points. Not only that, but Biden also would win Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona. The only battleground state remaining with Trump, just barely, would be North Carolina by a percentage point.
The driving force behind Trump’s plummeting prospects is overwhelming national disapproval of his handling of the surging pandemic now setting daily records for new infections from coast to coast. Only 38% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the pandemic in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, compared to 60% who disapprove, including 52% who strongly disapprove. Those numbers mirror Trump’s overall job approval now only 39% positive and 57% negative among voting-age adults. The result is a 15-point lead nationally for Biden over Trump 55% to 40%.
The irony is how easy it would have been even for terrible president like Trump to play the hero in an international pandemic. All he had to do was what any other president would do —assemble the most knowledgeable health experts he could find and follow their advice.
Ignorance is Dangerous
But ignorance can be dangerous, even deadly in a president.
Trump’s ignorance was on full display Sunday in a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace declaring the still rising U.S. death toll “is what it is,” as if there were nothing any competent president could have done about it and now it’s up the nation’s individual governors to handle it. Trump repeated the blinding barrage of falsehoods he regularly tells about the pandemic including his absurd claim the U.S. wouldn’t have so many coronavirus infections if it wasn’t doing so much testing. It would and Americans would still be dying from it.
Sadly, many Republican governors listened to Trump and rushed to reopen businesses in their states against the advice of medical experts while coronavirus cases were still rising. It was our nation’s biggest mistake, spreading record numbers of new infections across the country. It drove even more businesses into bankruptcy and turned millions of temporary layoffs into permanent ones.
Clueless about what to do, Trump still pretends coronavirus will magically disappear and assure his re-election.
We’ve always had ignorant people among us. We also have hateful, virulent racists. But we all have to keep working to make sure such people never again occupy the Oval Office.
To read more news, click here.
To read more articles by Joel McNally, click here.
