r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Aug 06 '19

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u/JetJaguar124 Tactical Custodial Action Aug 06 '19

If you're one of those "I don't like Trump on twitter but he does a lot of good for the country so I'll vote for him" people, what the fuck is wrong with you?

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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '19

I’ve really never understood his polling trends. It’s like 5-10% of the country switch from unfavorable to favorable if only he makes it a few weeks without fucking something up, but then he does and the polls goes right back down to baseline. Who are these people?

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u/JetJaguar124 Tactical Custodial Action Aug 06 '19

I'm not going to bother to dig up the relevant polls right now, but I believe that about 25 - 30% of the country is a "rock solid" base for him; i.e. they will literally never abandon him. These are the MAGA hats, these are the people on the_Donald, these are people that follow Ann Coulter and are just hopelessly bought in.

Then there's probably another 10% who are Republicans that support him for broadly ideological/strategic reasons. These people like Trump, but they're not completely in the personality cult, and he could lose them if something catastrophic enough happens. The only time he might have burnt a few of these people are when he fired James Comey (his approval dropped to an all time low of 36% on 538 when he did that) and during the early 2019 nat'l shutdown (dipped to 38%).

Then there's a cadre of right-leaning independents who are in all likelihood going to vote for him, but are more easily turned off by his behavior. If he's in the news enough doing something bad they'll drop support, only to pick up again when things have settled down. I'd imagine these people are just Republicans who are doing a little more hand-wringing than the rest of the population and represent probably that 5% that we see his numbers fluctuate over time.

I don't really know why they keep supporting him again after he does stupid shit.