Despite resounding victories on Super Tuesday, there are indications that Donald Trump is still struggling to get strong, united Republican support, which he may need in the presidential election.


Speaking to CNN about the Super Tuesday results, columnist and political commentator Molly Jong-Fast said: "There is a real ‘Never Trump’ contingent, and remember, Trump is a primary candidate. He has only ever tried to appeal to Republican primary voters, and he cannot marshal that group together the way he needs to.

“Part of his trick in 2016 was, he got these low-frequency voters out, these people who almost never voted, which is why the polling was so off, and you’re just not seeing that same type of enthusiasm.”

  • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    7 months ago

    I don’t care how unpopular he really is, the problem is the RNC is set to win the presidential election with only 2 swing state victories.

    That’s about 5 times as popular as I would prefer him to be.

  • rtxn@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    The real issue is not Trump’s popularity. It’s that most of the people who vote for him are voting against democrats out of an indoctrinated zealotry. In their twisted views, voting for a traitor, conman, and rapist is preferable to voting blue.

    • Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Okay, I’m definitely not trying to “both sides” here. I will absolutely be voting for Biden, I wish he was stronger on a few issues but ultimately think he’s done a pretty good job as president. Don’t you think there are a lot of people on the other side of that coin as well, even strategy stated here and elsewhere that people “must” vote for Biden even if it’s just to stop Trump?

      Again, not saying I disagree, while I have reasons to welcome a Biden second term I wish we had better options than a 2020 rematch, and part of me will absolutely be voting for Biden because a second Trump term terrifies me and will likely mean the end of any semblance of democracy we have left.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        Well, sure, but look at what you’re saying. You’re going to vote for someone who you think is decent, but not everything you want, because your other option is a guy who has been convicted of corporate fraud and rape, who has 91 felony indictments, who tried to overthrow the government and was the first president in history to refuse a peaceful transfer of power. The people we’re talking about on the other side are voting for that guy because he’s not a Democrat.

    • evatronic@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      7 months ago

      Meanwhile, people who agree with 90% of any variation of the Democratic platform will protest vote or stay home to “send a message” or some bullshit.

      • No_Change_Just_Money@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        I mean, as long as they only do so in the primaries, this is a valid behavior.

        In the actual election, however, I strongly suggest voting the lesser of two evils when the other option has cited mein kampf and said they want to be a dictator

        After that, you can still go on the street and demonstrate for the abolishment of the electoral college and a system that only allows two parties to have chances

        • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 months ago

          Voting the lesser of 2 evils is the only option in a 2 man first-past-the-post “democractic” oligarchy.

  • ainokea@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 months ago

    Articles like this scare me as it may cause people to not vote. We need people out there voting to protect our rights.

    • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      This. All the protest and sit out votes might as well have him back in the oval office. Guess who’s gonna whine the loudest when that happens?

  • Tattorack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    So, hey, isn’t this like that one time where you guys thought he had no way of winning but kinda sorta won anyway?

  • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    The polling wasn’t off in 2016, it was actually super accurate and missed the result by only one point.

    Trump isn’t popular, but he doesn’t need to be, he just needs to be less unpopular than Biden, and right now polling is suggesting that he is exactly that.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      7 months ago

      Do you remember 2016? Most pollsters picked Hillary to win. It was not “super accurate”. Most people were shocked by the outcome.

      And no, Trump isn’t “less unpopular” than Biden. That’s the point of the article. Based on the current polls, Trump should not be struggling at all against a centrist candidate that no one knows (Nikki Haley). That’s like a pro team having trouble beating a college team. It’s not good and shows large problems.

      Biden only has pressure from the left, and there isn’t even a candidate that can stand against him. The “no one” votes, are mainly people saying they want a generic progressive who doesn’t exist right now. In the general election, it’s much harder to overcome centrists who dislike you than right or left wing voters.

      • Hapankaali@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        I remember. The polls were accurate. The pundits were not. People were shocked because they didn’t want to believe that there are really that many loathsome morons around, not because they looked at what polls said.

        Here are the main polls for that race on the eve of the election. What they actually said was that the race was close to a tossup, with Clinton perhaps very slightly favoured to win.

        Here and here are favourability ratings. As you can see, Trump’s are substantially less negative.

        • KevonLooney@lemm.eeOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          7 months ago

          You are comparing “approval” ratings with “favorability” ratings. Trump has no favorability ratings because he’s not in office. These are not the same.

          Biden’s “favorability” is lower because there are people who want him to be more progressive. That doesn’t mean they won’t vote for him in a race against Trump.

          You can’t use “favorability” to gauge whether people will vote because it compares the candidate to a mythical generic person. The ballot doesn’t ask “do you like what Joe Biden is doing?” it asks “do you prefer Biden or Trump?”

          Those are very different questions. Biden will pull ahead once people actually think about Trump being president. It’s not a hypothetical like in 2016. He was president and he lost in 2020.

  • ChowJeeBai@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    The magas are gonna vote trump come hell or high water. The never trumpers should do the same. It’s not everyone else’s problem, and believing they have the numbers so I can sit it out is what got him in the office the first time.

  • Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    I’ve noticed a lot of conservatives don’t have the same full-throated support for Trump this time that they did in 2016. For instance, he lost a ton of gun owner support when he started talking about “taking the guns first, and letting the courts sort it out later,” and then going on to sign the bump-stock ban. I’ve seen some of those people go from rabid Trump fan-boys to kind of sneering whenever they hear his name. I suspect a lot of them are going to end up falling in line come November, but I wouldn’t be shocked if there were a fair few people casting protest votes as well.

  • horsey@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    Otherwise powerful politicians still act like they’ll literally die if they stop sucking his knob, though. Not clear why but it will be nice whenever that’s over.

  • vividspecter@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    7 months ago

    I sure hope this is right. We are at a critical moment in terms of climate change action, and he plans to dismantle the IRA, probably the most substantial piece of climate change legislation in the Western world.

      • vividspecter@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        7 months ago

        Inflation Reduction Act. Basically, a large amount of money is being put into renewable energy and the like (along with a number of other policies).

        • mommykink@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          Basically, a large amount of money public funds is being put into renewable energy and the like the private hands of the 1%.

          FTFY. Government subsidies for private enterprise has no business existing in the 21st century. Why don’t we nationalize all these industries, cut out the middlemen, and get a better ROI? Oh yeah, it’s because these bills are written by lobbyists for big corpo who want to make sure they get their piece of the tax dollar pie.

          Not that I think Trump would do anything better, but the IRA falls just behind Trump’s PPP as the most corrupt, best-ambitioned, acts.

          • KevonLooney@lemm.eeOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            7 months ago

            The act that funds the IRS to go after tax cheats is corrupt? And you think nationalized industries are not corrupt?

            • mommykink@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              7 months ago

              Poor people are audited at a rate of 5x more often than the rich and that trend hasn’t changed in the 2 years since the IRA was passed. The problems with the IRS aren’t from funding, they’re systemic, and the system is working exactly as intended. The IRS needs a complete defunding and rebuilding, but the idea that anything will improve for the average person with a better-funded IRS would be hilarious if not for the fact that so many people believe it.

              Less corrupt than private corporations and lobbyists? Of course. Take a look at something like the Roosevelt-era WPA to see what a properly-administered infrastructure project is supposed to be like, versus the lowest-bidder, private subsidies, inefficient system we have now.

                • mommykink@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  7 months ago

                  Absolutely no source given.

                  Meanwhile:

                  a ProPublica analysis found that someone making $20,000 a year was far more likely to be audited than a person making $400,000.

                  Source

                  …low-income households with less than $25,000 in annual earnings.  This group is five times as likely to be audited by the IRS as everyone else, according to a new analysis of IRS data by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

                  Source

                  Both articles written within the past two years.

                  The US needs a massive tax law overhaul before any further funding for the IRS will benefit the average citizen.

  • Lexam@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    7 months ago

    Doesn’t matter. Vote like he is and make sure to keep him out!

  • Binzy_Boi@supermeter.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 months ago

    I mean, he has been underperforming compared to the margins he was supposed to win by in a number of polls. Can’t recall off hand, where it was specifically and which polls, but I think he scored 28 points lower than what the polls anticipated in one area.