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June 15, 2020 02:14 PM UTC

Republicans Will Need More Than 'Yay, America' in 2020

  • 9 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Via Gallup (6/15/20)

Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign was all about how America was totally the best country ever (or would be, if he were elected). The infamous “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan has since morphed into the logically-inconsistent “Keep America Great” or “Transitioning to Greatness” tagline(s) as Trump’s re-election campaign steams forward.

Is America already “great” or are we still “transitioning to greatness”? New polling numbers from Gallup show that actual Americans don’t really believe that either message is accurate. In fact, Americans are less enthusiastic about ‘Merica! than they have ever been, which is not good news for Trump and other flag-draped Republicans.

As Chris Cillizza explains for CNN:

Just over 4 in 10 Americans (42%) said they were “extremely proud” to be an American, the lowest number to say so since Gallup began asking the question in 2001. The total of people saying they were “extremely” or “very” proud to be an American — 63% — was also the lowest ever measured by Gallup. [Pols emphasis]

The pride numbers have been falling since 2013 — although the drop accelerated considerably following 2016. At that point, more than 8 in 10 people said they were “extremely or “very” proud to be an American, with 52% falling in the “extremely proud” category. Those numbers have plummeted in the four years since.

These numbers are down significantly among Republican respondents, with 67% saying they are “extremely” proud of America (compared to 76% in 2019). What gives?

The effects of Donald Trump as president could also be playing a role in the declining numbers among Republicans. His handling of the government’s response to the pandemic has been uneven at best, and his calls for the police to “dominate” the streets during protests against police brutality and systemic racism were roundly criticized by even many within his own party.

The idea of an America in decline, or at least one in which fewer people are willing to say they are extremely proud to be a citizen of the United States, suggests that Trump’s promise of an American rebirth if he was elected president isn’t working.

President Donald Trump, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma)

President Trump is still going to hold his ‘Yay, America!’ political rallies — including one this weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma — and that message will no doubt continue to resonate with his rabid base of supporters. But for moderate voters who will decide the outcome of the 2020 election, it’s hard to argue that this approach can bear electoral fruit in November (though it’s still probably better than “The President Isn’t That Bad“).

But Trump isn’t the only Republican hoping to wrap himself in the American flag this fall. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has also been counting on a ‘Yay, America!’ sentiment to carry him to re-election in November. Earlier this year, Gardner suggested that Sen. Bernie Sanders, then one of the frontrunners for the Democratic Presidential nomination, didn’t actually like America. When Gardner spoke at President Trump’s Colorado Springs rally in February, he went heavy on the ‘Merica! rhetoric:

I believe in America. I believe in the power of this great nation. And I believe in all of you. And I just have one message for all of you and to our friends and allies around the globe. When it comes to America, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

This is a theme that Gardner has been pushing for quite awhile now. His re-election campaign rolled out a sappy “I believe in America” video last summer, featuring Gardner wielding his peak “say a lot of words but don’t actually say anything” powers. He also went heavy on this approach when he was addressing the Senate last September about his push to move the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado:

The only reason to oppose this move is if you don’t care about the people of the western United States, or you don’t think somehow the people of the western United States are smart enough to figure out how to run public lands, or to manage public lands.

If you don’t agree with the decision to move the BLM to Grand Junction, then you must hate America! This was silly in September 2019, and the latest polling numbers from Gallup indicate that it will be an even tougher sell in September 2020.

As relationship experts will tell you, true love is about embracing another’s flaws and faults as much as it is about seeking positive traits. You can still love America and push for it to grow and change…but that’s a narrative that makes much less sense for Republican incumbents.

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9 thoughts on “Republicans Will Need More Than ‘Yay, America’ in 2020”

  2. They’ll still have “Yay Corporate Merika’ …. at least until January: (at this point can we just laugh at everything?  I mean, at one point last night I was on social media with a D-stanner whose (REA) electricity had gone out because of a passing storm.  Her response: this is what socialism looks like.  If she’d look in the mirror (after she’s gone to the mailbox to get her farm subsidy payment) she’d see a  welfare queen; one waiting for her (truly) socialist electrons to light her house.) 

    I give up.  Let’s just start laughing at everything? 

    The Fed says it is going to start buying individual corporate bonds

    The move comes less than a week after a downbeat Federal Open Market Committee view of the U.S. economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Moving to a more aggressive bond-buying strategy “may also reflect the Committee’s view that the economic recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis will be an extended and challenging one, with credit markets requiring extensive support,” Friedman added.

     

  3. There is only one relevant question to ask in advance of November……

    "Are you better off today financially and economically than you were on January 20, 2017?" At least 3/4 of Americans, if they are honest with themselves, will answer a resounding NO!!!

    DUMP THE TRUMP !!!! 

    1. #FLUSHTHETURDNOV3

      U.S. cash farm income expected to slump as government aid drops – USDA

      The drop, of $13.1 billion in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars, is expected as direct government farm payments are projected to plummet 36.7% following an estimated decline in payments from the Trump administration’s trade aid programs. 

      Data show struggles in the U.S. agricultural economy will continue as farm bankruptcies rise and producers face ever-mounting farm debt, prolonged low commodity prices, volatile weather patterns and a fatal pig disease that has decimated China’s herd.

    2. For those less focused on their economic status due to relative stability and security of their jobs (hi! Moderatus), they can pick nearly any other dimension of life and ask about being "better off" as measured by that.

      • Environment?  Climate change?
      • Health Care?
      • World opinion? Strength of military coalition? Threat of other nations with nuclear weapons?  Security of information?
      • Food security / pricing?  Farmers going out of business?  Extent of agriculture consolidation?
      • Crime rates?

  6. This piece from Salon is alarming. It maps an all too possible scenario wherein the Orange Destruction manages to move the election to the House of Representatives.

     

    Investigative journalist Greg Palast: Here’s how Trump will steal the 2020 election

    Palast’s new book, “How Trump Stole 2020,” outlines a nightmare: Trump loses the electoral vote and wins anyway

    Why were all those people out there in the middle of the COVID-19 virus? Why were they waiting in line for a voting machine? The answer is that millions of Georgians asked for mail-in ballots and then hundreds of thousands of people did not get their ballots and were not told why. The answer is that these voters were purged. Hall a million of them! If you are purged, then you do not receive a mail-in ballot. If you do not get your ballot, you cannot mail it back in.

    In Georgia and in Ohio, and who knows how many other states — those state officials will not tell me what their rules are — ballots are no longer being sent to people on the so-called inactive list. That is very strange. “Inactive” means that you missed the last two elections, in 2016 and 2018. According to federal law — it is actually in bold type in the National Voter Registration Act — a person cannot lose their right to vote by not voting.
    In our most recent conversation, Palast warns that Joe Biden’s chances against Donald Trump are worse than the polls suggest because millions of Democrats will have their votes thrown out on Election Day. Moreover, many of those voters will have no idea that their votes were purged and therefore not counted.

     

     The election then goes to the House of Representatives. How could that possibly happen with Trump and Biden in 2020? The answer is the rabidly right-wing legislatures in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida say that there is so much voter fraud and that the mail-in ballots are not to be trusted. Trust me, those states are going to do things such as misprint ballots. Many “mistakes” are going to occur in those red states.

    So the result could be that Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida do not certify their electors, and Biden has lost those three states’ votes. There are still not enough votes for Trump, but Biden does not hit the 270 threshold in the Electoral College to be elected president.

    The 2020 election now goes to the House of Representatives, where every state gets a single vote. New York, California and Illinois each get a vote. Wyoming, South Dakota and Oklahoma each get a vote. Who wins? Most state delegations are majority Republican, even though the Republicans don’t control the House and have far fewer voters in America. But by the rules of the Constitution, Donald Trump could be re-elected even if he loses both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

    https://www.salon.com/2020/06/15/investigative-journalist-greg-palast-heres-how-trump-will-steal-the-2020-election/

    1. Pavlovitz nails this one: 

      No America, It’s Not Gonna Be Okay

      I want to come out of retirement and be optimistic again, but it will be a whole lot easier if a whole lot more people stop trusting that the arc of the moral universe will simply bend toward justice—and decide to be arc benders.

      I hope the people of faith and morality and conscience all decide that they won’t leave the future to chance.

      No America, things will not be okay—unless we wake up and make them okay.

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