Trump vs Bush polls, what's up with that 10% ?

[edhopper]

After Katrina, Bush's poll numbers sunk into the low 3os%. Bottoming out at 25%.
So let's say on average, about 10% of those polled who disapproved of the clusterfuck that was the Bush Administration still approval of this giant burning manure pile in the White House.
What could account for this. Is it racism? Though Bush followed long time racist GOP policies, he tried not to vilify immigrants, Muslims and people of color.
Is it that to admit that the man they voted for and supported is actually a traitorous, incompetent corrupt criminal destroying the country is too hard for them and would reflect how bad their judgement was?
Has a part of America grown more racist and fascist in the last 10 years and having the "Black Guy" in the White House sent people over the edge?
What explains this?

[DSandra]

1. Herbert Hoover ran America into the ground and he still got 40% of the vote in 1932

[edhopper]

2. Good point

An interesting take on that:
https://psmag.com/news/1932-polling-franklin-roosevelt-herbert-hoover

[empedocles]

5. Interesting article

From the article - "The Great Depression, it appears, was treated by many as a natural disaster," Norpoth writes.

[Suspect many current republicons see the economic/Covid problem as a natural disaster also - which hasn't affected them too much].

[Mike 03]

3. A quote from the documentary #Unfit

"Once you get on board psychologically, once you commit to a demagogueish ideologue, that puts up a fact-proof screen between you and the world." - Sheldon Solomon, social psychologist

The movie is really interesting, and frightening. He has a long, detailed explanation, but that is the gist of his explanation. Frightened people fall in line between authoritarians who use key words and techniques to make them feel threatened, even if the threats don't exist. Humans revert to tribal behavior.

[nevergiveup]

4. Maybe it is the difference between a corrupt political party and a cult.

W certainly had his supporters and followers but they were not rabid. Watch a Trump rally today. These people are nuts.

[edhopper]

9. True

but I don't think all of that 40% is a cult. Maybe 30%, what accounts for that other 10% that won't leave him?

[jimfields33]

6. I think it was at 8 years. Enough is enough!

With trump it should be enough is enough. I think only Clinton and Obama would have gotten a third term if allowed. 8 years is typically too long for a president.

[Polybius]

11. Reagan would have won in a landslide in 1988

He's the only reason Bush won that year.

[jimfields33]

13. Yieks. Horrid thought. But you are probably right. Weird times.

[gulliver]

7. Trump and his churches of Republicanism...

...Fox "News" and other TV preachers of Republicanism hadn't gone whole hog on the lying yet. Now you tune in to Fox News and all you see is hairdos preaching the Gospel of Trump. Life's simplified. It's Jim Jones with a bigger budget.

[dawg day]

8. Two wars that Bush started and couldn't finish didn't help his polls.

But it is amazing that Trump maintains about 40% no matter what.
I'll never understand that.

And I'll never understand how the GOP establishment that did keep some distance with Bush-- allowing some dissent even-- has completely and utterly caved all in with Trump.
Bush was GOP royalty-- really. Third generation GOP office-holder. Why did they feel that they could be less than totally loyal to him?

But maybe it's with Trump, they know he's junkyard dog inside, and will rip them to shreds if they make the slightest independent move?

It's so strange. I listen to The Bulwark and Lincoln Project podcasts-- all these former GOP ad men and strategists who are so opposed to Trump that they're even realizing and sharing their sense that there's a reason the GOP ended up like this-- "It was all a lie," as Stu Stevens said.

So most of the, um, "smart people" in the GOP who aren't office-holders despise and loathe Trump to the point that they are leaving the party they worked for over decades... so it's not that there's no independence.

But interestingly, they're all "hacks"-- I mean, the non-elected, the party apparatus guys, the strategists, the ones making the ads-- and they should be the LEAST principled and idealistic, really. But they're actually taking a stand on principle and clearly risking their future and present careers (though some have written best-selling anti-Trump books .

And every single GOP senator save Romney, and almost every Congressperson, and almost every GOP governor and party chair, have caved in utterly.

I don't get it. We'll be trying to figure this out for years.

It's even more striking because almost everyone who's not in the Trump camp hates him. Moderate hate him, independents hate him. It's not just progressive and loyal Democrats.
How can so many worship him, or pretend to (the GOP congresspeople!), and so many more have precisely the opposite feeling?

I keep coming back to the cult leaders, who seem so awful and evil and unattractive to most of us, but to their followers, they are perfect.

[Polybius]

10. Bush was boring, and was never good at firing up a crowd

He had supporters, but never followers which Trump has. He also had zero paleo-conservative support (they hate war and idolize Pat Buchanan). Trump has their support. That 10-15% are anti-war Republicans like Buchanan and Tucker.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. I don't think GWB was racist. Misguided yes, racist no.

In fact I don't think Rmoney was racist either. Misguided yes, racist no.

Trump, big time racist!

[Azathoth]

14. The Trumpist GOP base didn't really like Dubya at that point

They weren't big on the neocon Pax Americana agenda to start with. For them, Iraq was an opportunity to kill Muslims and bash leftists. One of the few things Dubya did right was to actively condemn their overt bigotry, which caused big beneath-the-surface cracks in both white nationalism land and Christian fundie land.

By the time Katrina happened, they saw Dubya as weak. He wasn't bashing leftists enough, he wasn't leaning hard into crypto-white nationalism, he was only tepidly pushing for an Evangelical theocracy. Meanwhile, everything from Iraq to Katrina was clearly a failure, and the conservative entertainment complex wasn't quite airtight enough for them to keep that fact from entering their consciousness.

[edhopper]

15. Good points

[SMC22307]

16. Fifteen additional years of right-wing media brainwashing...

plus the rise of social media. How much of the country watches only FUX? They have no idea what's really going on. Fat Nixon's supporters are not sweating the details -- they're convinced he's a "strong leader' and "patriot" and that's all that matters to their little authoritarian brains. For many the economy is good, and they turn a blind eye to his vile behavior. Then there's the "own the libtards" contingent plus revenge for the '60s/Nixon/etc. playing out. Many variables go into Trump support...