Social media was insane over the weekend! Insane! Many of Trump’s diehard followers seem to be freaking out over shrinking poll numbers, rally crowd size, and the attention Kamala Harris is receiving.
Donald Trump has always been the attention-grabber in the media since he descended down the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his run for the presidency, but since President Biden dropped out of the race and VP Kamala Harris became the presumed Democratic nominee she has stolen the media spotlight. In fact the Trump campaign appears to be putting the VP running mate, J.D. Vance, on the front line of the media.
A brand new poll shows that 66% of Americans are pessimistic about the state of politics. I’m surprised that the number isn’t higher. According to a new AP-NORC poll, 66% of U.S. adults say they are very or somewhat pessimistic about the current state of politics in America. Only 16% Are very or somewhat optimistic about the state of politics in the country.
I spent time this weekend reading some of the posts to various videos and blogs that were posted on the Scoot On The Air Facebook page and the negativity and the disregard for facts and reality have ramped up. Why?
The shift in the polls cannot be ignored and VP Kamala Harris is proving to be a much bigger challenge for Donald Trump than President Biden was. VP Kamala Harris is on the cover of TIME magazine with the headline: “The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris.” The sub-headline is: “The swiftest vibe shift in modern political history.” For a man who was so driven by his ego that he mocked up a fake cover of TIME magazine with him on the cover displayed in his country clubs, Donald Trump must be pissed at the Harris cover story.
A recent Rasmussen poll shows Trump leading Harris 49% to 44%. The RealClearPolitics running average of all of the polls shows Harris with a slight lead over Trump 47.6% to 47.1%. Even in the races that are a statistical tie considering the margin of error, any Harris lead represents a big comeback from where President Biden was polling against Trump. When it comes to trust on any issue that’s most important to voters, Trump led Biden 50% to 40% and now Harris leads Trump 50% to 48%.
We are in mid-August and a lot can happen between now and Election Day in November, but the shifting of the polls should be a concern for Trump and his most loyal followers. Trump always bragged, erroneously, that his rallies were huge and Trump supporters argued that there was no way Biden won in 2020 because Trump’s rallies were bigger. A ridiculous proposition because rally size obviously does not equate to victory. But now, Harris has had rallies that superseded the number of people at Trump rallies.
With all the blatant confidence Trump supporters have in their candidate, there must be some deep-rooted concern, even if subconscious, that a Trump victory is not a guarantee and this seems to be causing unrest among MAGAites.
Some of the comments on the SOTA Facebook page over the weekend may be a reflection of that unrest. Comments on my videos and blogs were often irrational and attempted to misdirect the actual topic. The misinformation in some of the posts leads me to perceive a degree of desperation and a collective freaking out by some supporters.
It is easy to fact-check and prove many of Trump’s statements and recollection of his own history as totally false, but it is not easy to convince many Trump supporters that what they believe is false.
The Harris - Walz ticket is gaining momentum in the very polls that Trump supporters used to prove their candidate was going to win when he was ahead in those same polls. But will the surge last? There is still a lot to reveal about Harris as vice president. I really enjoyed the posts that tried to challenge me on Harris’ record as a vice president. “What has she done?” “Look at her record as VP?” These questions represent the direction of many of the posts. My immediate thought was “What was Mike Pence’s record as vice president under Trump?” or “What did Pence do as VP?”
Vice presidents have the specific role of taking over the presidency should anything make it impossible for the president to continue as president. But what the hell have any vice presidents really done? They stand for things, like First Ladies, but vice presidents are not known for policy-making. I love those who say that Harris had 4 years to do something about inflation and now she is talking about what she will do. Vice presidents have been more ceremonial than they have been active, policy-making members of an administration.
But the fact that so many accusations against Harris are based on a false reality, it’s easy to see that Trump, and many of his supporters, are showing signs of real concern.
It seems that Trump would do better at attracting the votes he needs to win by talking more about policy and spending less time making up degrading names for his opponents.
