Data in poll released by Data for Progress, a liberal think tank, indicates that about 66% of likely voters think the US should call for a ceasefire and violence de-escalation in Gaza. This indicates that although the US government is arguably at least implicitly escalating the war and violence, the voting public disagrees. As usual, the government will likely do what it wants, not what most voters want.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
What America's political right is seeing, thinking and believing is a personal interest. It gets at why politics is the way it is. A NYT focus groups asked questions of 11 Trump supporters who are open to voting for a different Republican (the full article - not behind a paywall). The bottom line is that as a whole, the group is significantly incoherent and not particularly self-aware. Themes that are somewhat common are unease over political uncertainty, fear of crime and immigration. Reasons to support Trump are largely incoherent. Other candidates that had some appeal were Haley, DeSantis and Kennedy. Some of the Q&A:
Why support Trump?:
1. Makes me feel safe.
2. He unbalanced a corrupt system.
3. Business background.
To me, 1 makes some sense, but 2 and 3 are incoherent. 2 does not see the blatant corruption inherent in Trump. 3 appears to be oblivious to the fact, or doesn't much care, that Trump is a serial business failure and a chronic fraud and liar.
A NYT comment on the group indicates to me that there is a significant streak of authoritarianism in some of these open-minded supporters, and I suspect that trait is more prominent among Trump's closed-minded supporters:
But the group was most revealing about how, even as they were somewhat ambivalent about aspects of Mr. Trump’s conduct and record, there was a deep bond with him and with his style of leadership. These Republicans are drawn to the idea of disruptive leaders who shake up the system (a couple of them quite liked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), and several of them favored following gut instinct and upsetting people from time to time as leadership traits. .... The group made some suggestions for how to appeal to them and called out dimensions of Mr. Trump that they don’t like. Most of all, it came down to appealing to voters’ heads over their hearts: making a powerful, memorable, sustained case for why it was time to move on from Mr. Trump, a man they still have great affection for.
The observation that this group claims to be responsive to appeals to their heads over their hearts is completely incoherent to me. Those people sincerely believe that they are being realistic and rational about a person who is nothing at all like what they think he is. To me, this is more evidence of how terribly deceived, manipulated and betrayed most rank and file Trump supporters are. With irrational beliefs like those, there is no apparent way to speak rationally to them. Changing their minds is essentially impossible.
I don't know if the NYT asked about concerns for attacks on democracy or the dominance of radical right authoritarianism in the GOP. The article was silent about that. Given how little the MSM reports on it, the issue does not seem to be important to most people.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
A WaPo opinion discusses that some (most?) Palestinians view Hamas negatively:
If you doubt there are Palestinians who oppose the terrorist regime that Hamas has created, visit a project called “Whispered in Gaza” online. You’ll hear 25 powerful narratives that were recorded over the past 18 months. The Gazans’ names are changed and their faces drawn by animators, but their message has the unmistakable power of truth.
Here are some of those Gaza whispers: A pharmacist called “Basma” explains how she had to close her shop because of harassment by Hamas officials. A journalist called “Maha” says she was “muzzled” and threatened by Hamas and gave up her work. “Layla” describes how Hamas operatives forced her to close a counseling center because they were afraid it might encourage unhappy Gazans to protest the regime. “Othman” says bluntly: “The so-called ‘resistance’ has become a business.”
Listen to “Zainab,” her voice barely audible, expressing what sounds like a plea to the world: “There is a false stereotype that Palestinians in Gaza love rockets and wars. Gazans don’t love wars. The wars that happen are waged by the Hamas government for political aims that serve them alone. … We don’t want war. We want a decent life.”
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
The NYT comments about a possible impact of Kenneth Chesebro pleading guilty on two of DJT's lawsuits:
Having already put in writing that some of Mr. Trump’s postelection legal maneuvers were feints of a sort undertaken for political ends, Mr. Chesebro might also be able to undermine one of the defenses that the former president could use in both of the election prosecutions.Time will tell if this makes any difference when it comes to prosecuting and punishing DJT. I remain pessimistic until the last appeal has been heard and DJT is forced to go to jail. Anything short of that is a major loss. The road ahead is still very long and the final outcome completely uncertain.
If Mr. Chesebro were to testify that Mr. Trump’s lawsuits challenging his loss were not designed to win, but merely as ploys to sow doubt about the election, it could cut against Mr. Trump’s possible plan to use a so-called advice of counsel defense. That strategy involves blaming one’s lawyers for giving bad advice.
No comments:
Post a Comment