"A Disastrous Start"

 

We realize we're putting a lot of polling information out there, which we do for several reasons:  they provide a temperature check on the mood of the country;  and they can provide much-needed positive energy for the resistance to the fascist coup taking place in America.  Pollsters also use the first 100- days point in an administration to gauge how the public views the rollout of a President's agenda and how it compares to other Presidents.  With that brief preview, we checked out the "Opinion Today" Substack gathered by the New York Times, starting with Nate Cohn, who sums up how the Malignant Fascist is faring:

We have the first New York Times/Siena College poll since the election, and almost everyone will probably agree on this much: The findings are not good for President Trump.

You would be hard pressed to find a single “good” number for Mr. Trump in the survey.

His job approval rating is just 42 percent, and voters disapproved of his handling of every issue tested in the survey, including longstanding strengths like immigration and the economy.

Only 43 percent view him favorably, down from 48 percent in the final Times/Siena poll before the election and the lowest since his attempted assassination last July.

On question after question, voters say he’s going too far. Sixty-six percent of them say “chaotic” describes Mr. Trump’s second term well; 59 percent say “scary” fits at least somewhat well.  [snip]

Imagine that you didn’t know anything about this president or his actions so far. You knew only that this is a president with a 42 percent job approval rating after almost 100 days.

If that’s all you knew, you would have to say this presidency was off to a disastrous start.

For most presidents, the first 100 days are as good as it gets. It’s hard to remember now, but at this time four years ago Joe Biden was still being compared to F.D.R. Even the doomed presidents — think Jimmy Carter’s first term or George W. Bush’s second — still had positive approval ratings at this stage.

It’s not easy to burn this much good will so fast, and it doesn’t usually get any easier from here. [snip]

Bring yourself back to the beginning of the year, when Mr. Trump was basking in victory, when there was talk of a rightward cultural “vibe shift” or even an incipient realignment.

From this perspective, Mr. Trump’s first 100 days would count as a political disappointment — at best. [snip]

... Not only has he forfeited whatever political opportunity existed at the beginning of his term, but he has also managed to turn his usual strengths into liabilities. Voters no longer say his policies will help them personally anymore, one of the central reasons for his victory just six months ago...

Cohn goes on to discuss the MF's decline in ratings and looking ahead to the next =ugh= 1,365 days.

The "Opinion Today" Substack also links to other polls, which validate each others' view of the MF's shaky start. Here are their top lines:

"President Trump has lowest 100-day approval rating in 80 years; Majorities of voters disapprove of many of Trump's policies" -- Gary Langer, ABC News

"Trump approval sinks as Americans criticize his major policies, poll finds." -- Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Emily Guskin, Washington Post

"Americans have a negative economic outlook, even as many feel their personal economic situation hasn't changed." -- Chris Jackson, Mallory Newall, Sarah Feldman, and Johnny Sawyer, Ipsos

"Voters see Trump's use of power as overreaching, Times/Siena poll finds" -- Shane Goldmacher, Ruth Igielnik, and Camille Baker, New York Times

Well, that's enough of the zeitgeist for now.  And just to pre- but a certain point of view:  we don't (and you shouldn't) give a shit about what MAGAts think, say, or do.  As John Pavlovitz put it recently,

... [A]s far as his cheerleaders, champions, kindred spirits, sycophants, and disciples—they are proving themselves unreachable with reason, impervious to compassion, and mortally allergic to anything that reasonable human beings value. [snip]

Compromise is not an option, and because of that many of us are going to need to lean into our convictions and move away from people we know, love, and once respected.

Sadly and tragically, that’s just how this has to be."

They are not our destiny;  we are.

(Photo:  low-energy Grandpa Sundowner on April 23 / Samuel Corum/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)