Its fascination with Trump’s legal travails have not helped Democrats looking to the midterms.

National Review
Matthew Continetti

Ever since April 30, when the New York Times published a list of topics that special counsel Robert Mueller would like to ask President Trump about, cable news and the political press have focused exclusively on the two major legal matters in which the president is entangled.

First, of course, is Mueller’s open-ended probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Second is the Southern District of New York’s investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s business dealings, including with Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels. The coverage has been typically sensationalist and hyperbolic. Each new revelation, personnel change, tweet, and television interview is greeted as a prelude to Trump’s defenestration and exile. Putin, Mueller, Comey, Stormy, Rudy, and the two Michaels, Cohen and Avenatti—these are the only names that seem to matter in American political discourse.

What the Democratic Party has not recognized is that Trump’s legal dramas, though good for ratings, have done little to benefit the political opposition. On the contrary: President Trump’s approval rating has been on the upswing. He stands at 44 percent approval in the Real Clear Politics average, his highest rating in a year. That number might well be slightly higher, given the existence of “Shy Trump Voters” who are afraid of the stigma attached to approving of the president.

Meanwhile, since December, the Democratic advantage on the congressional generic ballot has been cut in half, from plus 13 points to plus 6.5 points. In a new survey, pollsters for Democracy Corps and Women’s Voices Women’s Vote Action Fund, while optimistic about Democratic chances in the fall, nonetheless concede that the party’s “momentum has stalled in the last few months.”

Why? Well, the most obvious answer is the economy, with its strong job market and positive wage growth. One could also say that voters like peacemakers, and so have embraced President Trump’s desire to meet with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. Both explanations sound reasonable to me.

But I would also suggest another one: The American electorate has not changed fundamentally in the decades since the Clinton presidency, when in the words of the late Jeffrey Bell it held a “bifurcated view” that separated the man from his policies. And as long as the policies seemed to be working, the man’s opponents found themselves wrapped around the axle of personal disgust, waiting in frustration for voters to recognize and repudiate defects of character that were all too plain to see.

Trump became president despite majority personal disapproval. His victory depended on a coalition between his devoted fans and more traditional Republican voters who, despite misgivings, supported him because they concluded that the alternative was worse personally and politically. Evaluations of his character are now “priced in” to the electoral market. That is why NBC News/Survey Monkey found this week that Republicans who say Trump is dishonest support him anyway. And it is why Trump’s overall approval in this poll is 45 percent, “tied with the highest rate of approval recorded by the NBC News/ Survey Monkey poll since he began his presidency.”

The incessant spotlight on the lawyers, on their clients and subjects and targets, not only occupies the attention of Democrats and the anti-Trump Resistance to the exclusion of other topics. It also relieves them of any responsibility to come up with a substantive message. The voters, by contrast, read the headlines with a cursory or prurient interest as they go about their lives in the real world of work, family, community, and faith. One voter told me the other day that legal terminology makes her eyes glaze over; she’d much rather browse Instagram. But such terminology is all anyone speaks in Washington nowadays—even if most pundits are not lawyers, probably couldn’t get into law school, and make up for their lack of expertise and inside knowledge with hyperbole and speculation.

“In the past few months,” write the authors of the Democracy Corps poll, “Democrats have appeared less focused on the economic and health-care battles that most engage anti-Trump voters; at the same time, Republican base voters, especially white working-class men, could finally point to a signature conservative policy achievement in the new tax cut law, where before they were grasping for news to justify their vote.”

Is it any wonder that Democrats appear less focused on the issues that engage voters, when the most prominent spokesmen for the party are Adam Schiff and his mannequins on the House Intelligence Committee, and Richard Blumenthal and Ron Wyden on the Senate side? When Michael Avenatti is on television to such an extent that by the end of this process he won’t just have his own show, but probably his own network?

I take exception with Democracy Corps’ analysis on one point. The tax bill passed in December, yet Trump’s approval began its most recent rise in March. That is exactly when he announced, against the wishes of his some of his own advisers and the Republican Congress, his first round of steel and aluminum tariffs. It is Trump’s desire to combat offshoring and deindustrialization, more than the tax bill, which is galvanizing his base and strengthening his economic message. More even than immigration, trade and manufacturing were the issues that distinguished Trump from elites in both parties and won him a mass majority of white voters without college degrees.

College-educated voters and suburban women disgusted with Trump may be enough to win the Democrats a slim House majority. But Democrats won’t find themselves in a truly commanding position until they make inroads among the Rust Belt voters who abandoned Hillary Clinton for the president. The more the party focuses on Robert Mueller and Stormy Daniels, the less likely it is to recognize the appeal of Trump’s economic message and to adjust accordingly. The more the party falls for the self-flattery, empty rhetoric, question begging, and maze-like complexity of media narratives—not to mention the more it succumbs to the fever-dream of impeachment—the less likely it is to recoup the power it once enjoyed.

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The MSM really doesn't care that much about the Democrats, it's ratings, and the Dems will find that out if they ask the MSM's to tone it back. The MSM is all out to destroy Trump and they don't care who gets hurt in the process.

Thank you, this made my day

The educated for reasons beyond my ken prefer some sort of socialism for the masses, though they don't care for it for themselves.

Is it a form of limousine liberal guilt?

Give em welfare in all it various guises, then we can feel good about ourselves...?

quote:

College-educated voters and suburban women disgusted with Trump may be enough to win the Democrats a slim House majority.

So “college-educated voters” automatically dislike Trump? Bullshit.

Half the voters are liberals, victims, recipients of handouts, and pay little or no taxes.

The other half are conservative, responsible, work, and pay most of the taxes.

Half is still a lot of people. Democrats aren’t going anywhere soon.

Trump was "hired" (elected if you prefer) to do a job.

He's doing that job. Would you give a crap if your Cardio-Surgeon was accused of maybe or maybe not hanging out with a whore some years ago, if he was indeed the best Cardio-Surgeon in the Biz?

Of course not, you just want the job done, and done right the first time.

Mr. Trump: Please continue to do your job, and thanks for attending the NRA meeting. Very cool indeed.

I'm hoping the media declares that Democrats are expected to easily win every contested race

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:

quote:

College-educated voters and suburban women disgusted with Trump may be enough to win the Democrats a slim House majority.

So “college-educated voters” automatically dislike Trump? Bullshit.

No. But dang it is a super majority on campus. Most of my professor friends wont speak to me.
When a dear professor friend from North Texas died from the flu this past fall I reached out to some. They had known for a few days. No one had told me because "of trump" issues. They apologized but it was glaringly clear, I had been deleted from any contact because of my perceived political view. (I am a professor at Liberty Univ.)
I meet colleagues in learning tech at conferences and it is like a social media orgy everybody being added and following each other. But afterwards, I notice most will unfollow when they figure out who my boss is.

I'm college educated. It's why I dont like anything that doesnt start with capital, and ends with ism.

Thank God for talking heads who aren't lawyers but love playing lawyers on TV, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by Birdvol:
The educated for reasons beyond my ken prefer some sort of socialism for the masses, though they don't care for it for themselves.

Is it a form of limousine liberal guilt?

I think it's sort of the inverse. The educated are absolutely certain that they'll hold professional positions no matter what. That means that even if their consciences are assuaged by everyone being on welfare, they should get paid a little better than anyone else and work indoors in slightly nicer offices than anyone else. IOW, they won't have to give up their 'elite' status - in their minds. And if they're elites, well, that means they're the ones in control who decide who gets paid what, who lives where, who has a nice office, etc.

The Left bashes Fox, and the Right bashes MSNBC. Neither network gives a good goddamn, and they're laughing all the way to the bank. They don't care, as corporations, much who wins, they just want to stir the pot, get lots of viewers, and sell beaucoup commercials. I fart in their general direction.

I'd agree that the media is not helping the DemonRats for all the reasons mentioned.

However, I have to agree with PD. If the media is killing the DemonRat party, they sure aren't doing it fast enough.

Let the media thump the tub about gun control.

The more they do that the fewer people vote for the God Damned Commies.

"The media is killing the Democratic Party." From your lips to God's ear. Shoot, I'd pray all night long for that to come about.
Rod

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:

quote:

College-educated voters and suburban women disgusted with Trump may be enough to win the Democrats a slim House majority.

So “college-educated voters” automatically dislike Trump? Bullshit.

THIS "college-educated voter" does NOT dislike Trump! I know quite a few others with the same feelings.

flashguy

18 months ago Trump was a wild guy, someone who tweeted semi-crazy things. Now he is a proven statesman, he is not crazy despite what the Democratic propaganda machine had been saying. I suspect that many persons who were leery of him, now realize that the Dems have been lying. Therefore they will vote against the democratic party, until it is reinvented as something not so extreme. Personally, I feel that if the republicans can field some half decent candidates at the midterms, they should do well.

IMHO: The democrat party is killing it self and the media is going further into the crapper. What is the democrats party offering? Nothing but socialist nonsense, it is not offering any solutions or alternatives to our country challenges. The democratic party is fixated on gays, gun control, free giveaways, Russian collusion, porn stars, illegals, refugees and every other bit of "Watch the birdie" nonsense. Even the major TV shows have become nothing but social justice propaganda shoved down you throat. However most of the American public is to ignorant, gullible, stupid, foolish and idiotic to realize they are being brain washed with this crap. We get what we deserve, crooked politicians, over powering government, ANTIFA and a politically correct society.
I think its time to take our country back, and shut this liberal, progress, socialist democrat crap down.

I suspect there will always be ignorant people who can be manipulated, but most of Americans probably are realizing that the Dems are doing nothing for them or for the country.

That is exactly how I feel...I didn't vote for Trump to be the Pope....did he do something with stormy, hell I don't care. Just keep your eye on the job....I work for a company that is doing better then ever since 2005 when I started keeping records....keep up the great job.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Trump was "hired" (elected if you prefer) to do a job.

He's doing that job. Would you give a crap if your Cardio-Surgeon was accused of maybe or maybe not hanging out with a whore some years ago, if he was indeed the best Cardio-Surgeon in the Biz?

Of course not, you just want the job done, and done right the first time.

Mr. Trump: Please continue to do your job, and thanks for attending the NRA meeting. Very cool indeed.