In the excitement over the broad and ideologically-diverse field of Democratic challengers to Donald Trump for the presidency in 2020, it can be tantalizing to let yourself remember how nice it was to have a semi-normal democracy — one where the President didn’t govern by fiat, where we all agreed some laws sucked but were necessary, and where Americans could collectively direct our hate at the people who actually deserve it: The rich.
With so many candidates to choose from, it’s like action figures in the schoolyard — Transformers Harris and Booker debate Go-Bot Trump by the swings, Sherrod Brown throws Darth Trump and his entire squad of red-clad Imperial Guard off the merry-go-round — and we get so caught up in the fantasy of already having our country back that we forget how hard it might be to reclaim it.
After all, every measure of success that Trump has had so far during his presidency has been dependent on unintelligent people believing that he was successful at something, and then the media reporting on what those people think of the success they think he had.
We have more work to do than you might think.
The bright side, however, is that public opinion is not just on the right side of history now, but is so in places where it actually counts. In recent Gallup polling, the organization showed that Trump’s state-by-state approval ratings — a far more accurate portrait of the national mood than some random nationwide sample of 1,100 people by telephone — could be a death knell for his 2020 chances.
For example, just the 17 states in dark green in this Gallup graphic show approval of 50 percent or higher:
It’s pretty hard not to notice that those are the reddest of red states, and that a whole lot of states he actually won — including swing states that might otherwise have handed the election to Hillary Clinton — have him pegged below 50 percent approval. In Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, the three states that essentially wrapped up the electoral college win for Trump in 2016, he’s at a measly 42 percent approval.
So have your fun playing out the campaign in your own little schoolyard, and pick the action figure or doll you like the best. Just remember to show up in those swing states and prove this polling right.
Featured image via screen capture
