Will Bunch: Voters don't have a clue about how much worse Trump's second term would be

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/trump-47-second-term-dangers-authoritarianism-20240314.html

No paywall link
https://archive.li/Fhstt

Gameli Fenuku, a 22-year-old Black college student in Richmond, Va. is exactly the demographic you’d think would never vote for Donald Trump in November — and indeed he may not. But Fenuku told the New York Times he hasn’t ruled out supporting the presumptive GOP nominee, either. That’s because he remembers his teen years under Trump as a time when a lot of things were a lot better than he sees them now — especially the economy.

“I don’t want to say it was just because he was president, but everything was definitely cheaper,” Fenuku told a reporter. “We weren’t just handing out money to other countries.”

The Virginia college student is the face of a phenomenon that is shaping the 2024 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden with less than eight months to go. The polls and interviews suggest a lot of voters are responding “no” to the ex-president’s borrowing of Ronald Reagan’s famous question, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” This despite Trump’s army of detractors calling this “collective amnesia” about a twice-impeached president who nearly four years ago was wondering if Americans should be drinking bleach to tackle COVID-19.

Less than three-and-a-half years after the U.S. electorate made Trump the first 21st-century president to lose reelection — and by a solid, 7-million vote margin — a poll taken by a liberal climate group found 52% of today’s voters now approve of Trump’s former presidency.

*snip*

[JT45242]

1. The lack of critical thinking skills for a 22 year old college student is frightening

Theoretically, this is someone months from graduating from college and has virtually no critical thinking skills on display.

On top of that....not sure why any black person worth less than 10 million dollars would support someone who is so cozy with white supremacy and Hitler.

[pandr32]

2. We should point out how old Fred Trump treated ordinary people.

His orange spawn learned from him, Dictators he admires, and brutal international gangs.
And then, of course, he has already spewed many diabolical plans for a second term himself.

[XanaDUer2]

3. Wow nt

[Ping Tung]

4. I believe that Hillary lost because everybody thought she'd win.

A lot of people didn't like Hillary or Trump. Many nose-holders who would've voted for just didn't bother because they believed she'd win anyway.

That's not true this time. A lot of Democrats and Independents don't like Biden for any number of reasons but will go with the nose-holding because they don't just dislike Trump but hate him.

I think Joe will win. He's got my state in his pocket. Any Democrat, including a ham sandwich Democrat could beat Trump here. i think there are far more I hate Trump voters than I hate Biden voters in the swing states.

[TwilightZone]

5. Some voters don't care what it would be like under a Trump presidency...

as long as they perceive that they'll be better off economically. The 22-year-old in the article makes this quite clear. His perception is that things were cheaper under Trump, and that's as far as the logic goes.

It's not that voters don't understand that Trump is a criminal and a fraud. Other issues are just more important to some of them. We see it as myopic, but I think we often make assumptions about what voter priorities should be that aren't in tune with reality.

I have no answers as to how to conclusively deal with that. The best way is probably to help them understand what Biden has done that has benefited them and what he would continue to do in the future, but shaking loose those "but, groceries were cheap" perceptions is a challenge.

[vadermike]

6. Scary AF

This crap that I am seeing on a daily basis is starting to remind me of Hitler’s rise to power.

Being of the Jewish faith in even more frightened of what I am seeing but unfortunately this can happen here

In Germany many but certainly not a majority of Jews voted for Hitler thinking economically he would be good for Germany. I see this is starting to play out here , I have heard even here where I live alit of Hispanics for Trump. Not a ton but too many .. more than a few is too
Much in this environment.


That point in the article where Voters are giving Trump high marks for his Presidency basically re habilitating him is quite concerning.

I am not sure what the answer is but Dems messaging machine needs to go in full gear non stop until November.

What will help too is in person canvassing which we didn’t have last time but will need to win this year bc of all this BS.

Just my 2 cents at this time

I am a long time Dem and am actually more worried about this election than 20 or even 16

Trump and the GOP say dictator on day one is scary as fuck

To say the least !