Jennifer Rubin has emerged as one of the strongest voices against President* Trump, which is all the more striking since she’s a long-time Conservative and in fact drove us up the wall with the Benghazi nonsense.
Regardless her clarity of thought not only about Trump but about the morally bankrupt GOP has been an oasis in the desert.
Today she states the obvious — that Trump is a failure, that he’s losing support, that his most fervent stronghold — oh the irony — remains the white Evangelical community. What’s scary is the fact that the Russia scandal hasn’t really eroded his hard core support — yet — but overall the numbers are encouraging:
Trump’s efforts to discredit coverage of a burgeoning Russia scandal have kept his cultist followers on board, but few others. (“Just over one-third of all Americans say they trust the president either ‘a great deal’ or ‘a good amount’ in any such foreign negotiations. Asked specifically about Trump-Putin negotiations, almost 2 in 3 say they do not trust the president much, including 48 percent who say they do not trust the president ‘at all.’ . . . 60 percent of Americans think Russia tried to influence the election outcome, up slightly from 56 percent in April. Some 44 percent suspect Russian interference and think Trump benefited from their efforts. Roughly 4 in 10 believe members of Trump’s campaign intentionally aided Russian efforts to influence the election, though suspicions have changed little since the spring.”) Most striking, the poll finds that “no more than 1 in 4 Americans believe passionately in him or his presidency at this juncture. . . . Trump’s disapproval rating has risen to 58 percent in the national survey, which was conducted last Monday through Thursday. Overall, 48 percent disapprove strongly of how he’s doing. But while 36 percent approve of Trump overall, only 25 percent approve strongly.”
It’s striking — and shocking — that the religious right remains so firmly in Trump’s corner. I don’t get it. But then I never understood how the RR got so much power in the first place!
Rubin notes the irony,
Trump’s most loyal base remains white evangelicals, who still back him by a 61 percent to 35 percent margin. Apparently, an unhinged, ignorant president with a soft spot for America’s most formidable international foe has endeared himself to a group that touts its defense of American “values.” One could say Trump’s unbridled hatred for the media (urban elites more generally), his appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and his vitriolic aversion to immigration are sufficient to keep these voters’ affection.
The health care debate seems to be hurting Trump though. As facts emerge Obamacare has grown ever more popular and Trumpcare is a polling disaster. What’s scary is the possibility that the GOP might pass it anyway, figuring they have nothing to lose — and that’s terrifying to me. If they aren’t listening to their voters then what will move them? If they don’t care about national security, Russian invasions into the voting process then what DO they stand for now?
Increasingly we’re seeing some departures from the GOP. I hope the whole party falls to pieces — it deserves to. Since the Kennedy/Johnson era the Republican Party has been captive to the ugliness of Reaganism — the absurd fear the Medicare spelled the end of liberty, that Civil Rights will bring about disaster —
I hope we’re fighting a last battle here and not the harbinger of another sort of Civil War. The answer, I think, lies in pursuing the truth, making sure as many people as possible hear it despite the potency of FOX, Rush Limbaugh and the liars in the White House, Brietbart, Alex Jones and all the other perpetrators of “alternative facts.”
People like Jennifer Rubin give me hope.
www.washingtonpost.com/...