Trump Voters? In A Focus Group, They're Mean

[DonViejo]

Mark Shields

May 19, 2018 5:17 am

In Marine Corps jargon, a “duty station” is the military base or camp where a Marine is assigned to live. Reflecting our national inclination both to romanticize what is past and to criticize what is current, Marines will regularly gripe that there is no duty station better than the one they just left and none worse than the one they’re presently at.

American voters have an almost identical reaction in their feelings toward national political leaders, tending to view those leaders more positively after they have exited center stage than they did when they were in office. For example, George W. Bush, whom voters viewed unfavorably by a 2-1 margin in his last year in the White House, reversed his numbers and received a 2-1 favorable rating only 10 years later. Whether because of the deeper perspective time’s passage provides to us all or because of their being compared with flawed Oval Office successors, former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush also enjoyed dramatic bipartisan surges in their public popularity.

But that mellowing pattern may no longer be operative in our tribal American politics, as we learned in this week’s focus group of 12 voters in a Milwaukee suburb, conducted for Emory University by respected Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart.

When Hart asked the group for a word or phrase to describe Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, who is gravely ill in his Arizona home, it was not surprising that the answers included positives — “war hero,” “patriot,” “strong,” “very ethical” and “smart” — reflecting the more than 3 in 5 Americans, according to impartial surveys, who view McCain favorably.

But committed Donald Trump voters in the group were harsh indeed when it came to McCain. To Betsy Novak, 55, who works in a greenhouse, he is “petty,” which was the word also used by Randy Cera, 52, a self-employed insurance agent. To 66-year-old machinist Stephen Romanowski, McCain is a “turncoat,” while to shipping and receiving manager Curt Hetzel, 48, McCain is, at 81, “too old.”

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http://www.nationalmemo.com/trump-voters-in-a-focus-group-theyre-mean/

[Frustratedlady]

1. "McCain is, at 81, "too old." Too old for respect?

I hope Hetzel never comes down with a debilitating or terminal disease. Payback is a bitch. Just sayin'.

[yallerdawg]

2. Those voters revel in their ugly hate.

Guess what?

That's why we have a jackass filthy pig in the White House. He represents them.

[lunatica]

3. Meanness is always present in the Deplorables.

It’s what gives them a reason to get out of bed. Resentment is worn like an item of clothing at all times.

[lark]

4. They aren't intelligent and have chosen meanness.

I agree totally, they are deplorable, won't listen to sanity and can't be won over. We just have to outvote them plus, very importantly, make sure russian repugs don't steal the elections by hacking the databases, voter restrictions and other means

[Hortensis]

5. "Mean" is a dangerous sign of potentially extremist government.

A researcher who studied extreme authoritarian governments for 40 years had a simple warning for lay people: Watch out for mean people.

We have mean right-wing extremists in government now and in the electorate.

And meanness is catching and inflammable. Anxiety can make people mean, and these are anxious times.

For examples, check out some of the posts on the big royal wedding thread for lots of little meanness and even hostility flares triggered by this target. And especially a couple of the threads on bigots who were caught acting out to see unthinking hostility react to being offered a target. A couple of guys alarmed me on those latter with their intense hostility toward a stranger who was already being punished, but not a tenth enough apparently.

[ms liberty]

6. I agree. n/t