Why Do So Many Republican Voters Support Trump? A Theory By Jonah Goldberg

[mystery-ak]

   Why Do So Many Republican Voters Support Trump? A Theory
By Jonah Goldberg

September 11, 2019 6:30 AM

Many voters understand how polls can be used as weapons and don’t want to give the “enemy” any satisfaction.

Early Monday morning, Donald Trump tweeted: “94% Approval Rating in the Republican Party, a record. Thank you!”

Where the president got this specific number remains a mystery. Recent polls by YouGov put his GOP approval roughly ten points lower, and Gallup, which has tracked Trump’s popularity since he took office, puts him at 88 percent.

But I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Trump used his Sharpie to round up his score. He’s deeply invested in being — or at least claiming to be — the most popular Republican president in history. In July of 2018, he announced: “I am the most popular person in the history” of the GOP. “Beating Lincoln,” Trump added. “I beat our Honest Abe.”

For what it’s worth, polling in the 1860s wasn’t exactly reliable. But even if Trump’s oft-repeated 94 percent number were accurate, and even if it beat Lincoln’s ratings, it still wouldn’t beat George W. Bush’s 99 percent after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Why the president feels the need to embellish is already a well-spelunked psychological rabbit hole. But even ignoring his exaggerations, he is consistently hitting in the mid- to high 80s with Republicans in polling, which demands a question: Why are his actual numbers so high?

more
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/trump-republican-voter-support-approval-ratings/

[PeteS in CA]

How is this a mystery?

In 2016 it was Trump or Hillary who was going to be President. Not a tough choice ... not in the neighborhood of a tough choice ... not on the same planet as ... . For me, there was much to dislike about Trump, and while his promises sounded good, well politicians. Then there was the corrupt horror of Hillary.

After 2+ years, Trump has actually kept or worked to keep a lot of his promises. How un-politician-like of him?!

Now, in the present, the Dem candidates are a Free-Shit-Auction, trying to out-do each other in enviro-promises to shut down and destroy crucial sectors of the economy, and promising various tweaks on an economic philosophy that has killed 10s of millions of innocent people and has never worked when tried.

Trump vs. NPC Dem? Another un-tough choice. Trump is trying to benefit this nation, while NPC Dem (they're all the same except for the color of their trim) is promising to bring it to dystopian ruin.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Goldberg is very much hit-or-miss.  This is definitely a "miss".   He talks about party identification/loyalty being a critical factor, but ignores that Trump had a lot of appeal to certain independents and disaffected Democrats that enabled him to flip states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Clearly, whatever appealed to those people was not "GOP loyalty", so maybe Goldberg should be asking what motivated those non-Republicans to vote for Trump, and then ask whether those same factors might be why so many Republicans support him.

Plus, a lot of Trump voters are very much anti-Establishment GOP.  So again, it doesn't seem like party loyalty/blind partisanship can explain his level of support.

[PeteS in CA]

Goldberg is very much hit-or-miss.  This is definitely a "miss".   He talks about party identification/loyalty being a critical factor, but ignores that Trump had a lot of appeal to certain independents and disaffected Democrats that enabled him to flip states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.  Clearly, whatever appealed to those people was not "GOP loyalty", so maybe Goldberg should be asking what motivated those non-Republicans to vote for Trump, and then ask whether those same factors might be why so many Republicans support him.

Plus, a lot of Trump voters are very much anti-Establishment GOP.  So again, it doesn't seem like party loyalty/blind partisanship can explain his level off support.

Goldberg and much of NatRev are in or close to Never-Trump territory, but how they can be mystified by support for Trump mystifies me. Their overthinking something so simple shows that they don't understand ordinary people much better than did Hillary.

[skeeter]

Part of the reason is, unlike the left and NTers, most republicans recognize when Trump says 'I'm better than Honest Abe' he's trolling.

[Bigun]

Who the F cares what Johna Golberg has to say about anything?  Asking for a friend.