Histrionics having no effect whatsoever
Morning Consult poll now has support for Trump's immigration EO at 55-38
It bears repeating because it's easy to forget: The loudest among us are not necessarily the most numerous. In fact, they're usually not, because if they were in the majority they'd be winning, and they wouldn't be so hysterical.
If that's true, so is this corollary: The most hysterical have gotten that way precisely because they can't think of a reasoned method of persuading anyone. They can get lots of attention - hysterics usually can - but just because people are looking at you and talking about you doesn't mean they have any sympathy for your position. And if this morning's Morning Consult/Worst Web Site In The World poll is any indication, it appears all the histrionics over the Trump immigration EO are having the opposite effect. Far from being persuaded, people are tired of witnessing all the insanity, and the result is that
the polls are moving in the president's direction:
Fifty-five percent of registered voters said they approve of the immigration order, while 38 percent disapprove, according to the national Morning Consult/POLITICO survey conducted Feb. 2 through Feb. 4. Thirty-five percent of voters strongly approve of the ban that was first implemented on Jan. 27.
Still, Trump’s approval rating is sliding.
After two weeks in office, 47 percent of voters approved of his job performance, down 2 points from the previous week. At the same time, his disapproval rating rose 5 points, to 46 percent from 41 percent.
Compared to a number of other high-profile executive orders Trump has signed since taking office on Jan. 20, the travel ban is generally popular with voters, ranking behind his order to revoke funding for so-called “sanctuary cities” and another to freeze all federal regulations until his administration can review them.
The graph you'll see at the link is quite telling. Not only does the public support the immigration order, but all 11 major executive orders Trump has signed since becoming president enjoys at least plurality support. So how do you explain his sinking approval rating even while people agree with his policy decisions?
Well that's easy: Just as they did on Election Day, people are separating what they don't like about Trump's personal style from what they understand the country needs. A lot of things about Trump's style are not my cup of tea either, but if I had been polled I would have understood the question to be about policy decisions and, to some extent, implementation. It would not have been about Trump's personality. But everyone is going to understand poll questions in their own way, so if Trump just bothers you personally, they you might go thumbs down on him even as you're acknowledging that he's mostly making the right decisions.
Back to the immigration order, the poll numbers on this one are truly remarkable because it actually polls among the top three among the 11 executive orders people were asked about. The only ones that did better are revocation of funding for sanctuary cities and putting a halt to new regulations until they can be reviewed. And those two only did a little better than the immigration order.
To get that result against the backdrop of the hysteria we've seen in recent weeks is simply astonishing, and it suggests that the left's tactic of screaming and disrupting everything in sight is not only failing, it's actually hurting them.
In a broad sense, here's what I think the left is missing: They think Trump is an absolute monster, and that voters on Election Day chose to give their approval to the monster. In fact, what I think most Trump voters believed is that Trump has some serious flaws, although he is nowhere near what the left is making him out to be, but that even so the nation has very serious problems that need to be solved. Given a choice between two flawed candidates, the most prudent choice is to choose the flawed candidate who is more likely to correctly assess the problems and implement the necessary solutions. Viewed by that measurement, the choice was Trump all day long, and it wasn't close.
The left doesn't get this at all. They think Trump = hate, and all they have to do is shout a little louder about how they're against hate and bigotry and racism and sexism and whatever else, and the public will suddenly jolt up screaming and see things their way. In fact, the general public does not accept the left's premise. So they're willing to accept a president who bothers them in exchange for real solutions to serious problems. And on the immigration order, it's clear the public is able to filter out the hysterics and understand this issue for what it actually is.
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