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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 2/9/17

Americans like the resistance a lot more than they like Trump

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Richard (RJ) Eskow
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Woman's March
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For Donald Trump, this has got to hurt: Less than two weeks after his inauguration, the people who took to the streets to protest his policies have outstripped him in popularity.

And, given his rich history of "locker room banter" and other sexist comments, it must be especially humiliating for Trump to know that the biggest mobilizations of protesters who bested him were led by women.

A popular front

The numbers are irrefutable. Trump's approval rating has sunk to a historically low 42 percent, according to Gallup, yet 60 percent of the public approved of the women's marches, a Washington Post poll found. Only 29 percent of those polled disapproved of the anti-Trump marchers yet 54 percent disapproved of Trump's performance as president. In an even more startling finding, Public Policy Polling found in late January that 40 percent of voters thought Trump ought to be impeached.

They don't like you, Mr. President. They really don't like you.

Photo credit: Gallup daily tracking poll of Trump job approval

The marchers were also more than twice as popular as the tea party was when it first appeared. Sixty percent of those polled approved of the women's marches in the days following those nationwide events, and 33 percent strongly approved. By contrast, only 27 percent of the public approved of the tea party at the height of its popularity in early 2010, and only 17 percent strongly approved.

That's especially impressive when you consider the fact that the tea party was very well funded and was heavily promoted by the Fox News media empire. Right-wing rants to the contrary, there was no big money behind the women's marches, not even from George Soros.

Predictably, Trump responded to his humiliating numbers with a tweet dismissing them as "fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election."

He was wrong. Most polls accurately predicted that Hillary Clinton would achieve a relatively narrow but significant popular vote victory. The news failure in the run-up to the election was one of interpretation, not data. The media failed to comprehend the distribution of those votes or the potential shifts in voting patterns that could take place in a few swing states.

Unpopular policies

With a few notable exceptions like his intentions to spike and renegotiate trade deals and ramp up infrastructure spending, Trump's policies are as unpopular as he is. Trump is moving to gut the Environmental Protection Agency and he has appointed a climate-change-denying fossil fuel lobbyist named Scott Pruitt to run it. But more than 60 percent of Americans want to see the EPA's regulatory powers maintained or strengthened. An equal share of us opposes Trump's plans to increase oil drilling on public lands.

As Trump staffs his Goldman Sachs-rich administration, nearly 60 percent of Americans polled last year believed (correctly) that Wall Street was still a threat to the economy. As he moves to cut bank regulations, it should be noted that 89 percent of Republicans in that poll supported regulating the financial industry. Trump is moving to reduce the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at a time when 56 percent of those polled want to maintain or increase its authority.

Recent polling by CNN/ORC International also shows that 60 percent of Americans oppose Trump's plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, and 53 percent oppose his plans to halt refugee arrivals and ban immigrants and visitors from seven Muslim-majority nations. Even his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, lags in popularity behind Obama pick Merrick Garland by a seven-point margin, according to Gallup.

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Richard (RJ) Eskow is a former executive with experience in health care, benefits, and risk management, finance, and information technology. Richard worked for AIG and other insurance, risk management, and financial organizations. He was also a (more...)
 
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