Reprinted from Robert Reich Blog
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday finds Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a statistical tie, with Trump leading Clinton 46 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. That's an 11 percent swing against Clinton since March.
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, also released Sunday, shows Clinton at 46 percent to Trump's 43 percent. Previously she led 50 percent to 39 percent.
Polls this far before an election don't tell us much. But in this case they do raise a serious question.
Since he cinched the Republican nomination two weeks ago, Trump has been the object of even more unfavorable press than he was before -- about his treatment of women, his propensity to lie, his bizarre policy proposals.
Before this came months of news coverage of his bigotry, megalomania, narcissism, xenophobia, refusals to condemn violence at his rallies, refusals to distance himself from white supremacists, and more lies.
So how can Trump be pulling even with Hillary Clinton?
Throughout the Republican primaries, pundits and pollsters repeatedly told us he'd peaked, that his most recent outrageous statement was his downfall, that he was viewed as so unlikeable he didn't stand a chance of getting the nomination.
But in my travels around the country I've found many who support him precisely because of the qualities he's being criticized for having.
A Latina-American from Laredo, Texas, tells me she and most of her friends are for Trump because he wants to keep Mexicans out. She thinks too many Mexicans have come here illegally, making it harder for those here legally.
A union member from Pittsburgh says he's for Trump because he'll be tough on American companies shipping jobs abroad, tough with the Chinese, tough with Muslims.
A small businessman in Cincinnati tells me he's for Trump because "Trump's not a politician. He'll give them hell in Washington."
Political analysts have underestimated Trump from the jump because they've been looking through the rear-view mirror of politics as it used to be.
Trump's rise suggests a new kind of politics. You might call it anti-politics.
The old politics pitted right against left, with presidential aspirants moving toward the center once they cinched the nomination.
Anti-politics pits Washington insiders, corporate executives, bankers, and media moguls against a growing number of people who think the game is rigged against them. There's no center, only hostility and suspicion.
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