It seemed fairly clear that the majority of Republican voters didn’t care about morality when they tucked into the voting booth to vote for a man who openly admitted to sexually assaulting women, and made racism and bigotry a cornerstone of his 2016 campaign. Nonetheless, in a new poll from Gallup, an increasing number of Republican voters are admitting they don’t much are about “moral leadership” anymore:
Across four polls conducted during the Clinton administration, an average of 72% of U.S. adults said it was very important for the president to provide moral leadership for the country. A May 1-10 update of the question finds 66% of Americans holding that view.
The modest change at the national level obscures more significant shifts among partisans -- a 23-percentage-point decline among Republicans and a 13-point increase among Democrats.
That is quite an astonishing drop from the so-called “family values” voters of the Republican Party. Of course these were only words they parroted: their real values are consistently reflected in their budget, their policies, and their voting records. Not coincidentally, the same Gallup poll shows voters of all stripes think Donald Trump is weak on the topic.
By 59% to 40%, Americans believe Trump provides weak rather than strong moral leadership. Republicans and Democrats diverge greatly on this question, with 77% of Republicans believing Trump provides strong moral leadership and 91% of Democrats saying he provides weak leadership. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats believe his moral leadership is "very weak." Independents are much more negative than positive about Trump's leadership on morals.
(Emphasis added to highlight how truly perverted the mindset of the Republican voter really is at this moment in history.) From the moment he announced his candidacy at Trump Tower in 2015, Donald Trump has been leading Republicans (and the nation) down, down, down. How low will they go?
via GIPHY