Friday, November 4, 2016

Not Alone

I'm not the only one ready to get this election over with. The results from final election poll by the New York Times and CBS declares, "An overwhelming majority of voters are disgusted by the state of American politics, and many harbor doubts that either major-party nominee can unite the country after a historically ugly presidential campaign." 82% stated the current election has left them disgusted rather than excited. The race is tight, according to this poll, with 45% supporting Clinton and 42% supporting Trump.

Interestingly, they did some analyses of responses based on who the respondent was supporting, and the differences are striking. While 71% of Clinton supporters had "a lot" of confidence that the votes would be counted properly, only 19% of Trump supporters said the same. Relatedly, only 7% of Clinton supporters said vote fraud happened "a lot" versus 42% of Trump supporters. (Maybe because some of the recent cases of voter fraud reported in the media have been by Trump supporters?) 86% of Clinton supporters, and 63% of Trump supporters, said they would accept the results of the election. Trump supporters are also more likely to support poor sportsmanship - only 36% said it was important for the losing candidate to publicly acknowledge the winner, compared to 77% of Clinton supporters.

Despite the fact that the Trump supporters seem to be buying Trump's rhetoric that the election is rigged, and see no reason Trump needs to shake hands and say "Good game," 41% said Trump's candidacy was bad for the Republican party and 85% perceive the Republican party as divided. Only 17% of Democrats felt Clinton's candidacy was bad for the party, and 73% view the party as united. Follow-up interviews were conducted to better understand these results:
Republicans cannot even agree on who is to blame for the division, though they largely believe Mr. Trump has been the impetus for the breach, according to some follow-up interviews.

“I think Donald Trump has definitely divided the party,” said Sheila Wagner, 79, a Republican from Redmond, Wash. She said she had already marked her ballot for Mrs. Clinton, adding: “When he first declared he was going to run, I thought it was a joke. I just couldn’t believe anyone would favor him.”

Yet other Republicans point the finger at Republicans who have refused to support Mr. Trump.

“The old school, quote unquote, the Bushes, the people who have been around a long time, aren’t supporting Trump, and that’s creating division,” said Nora Reinhardt, 66, a farmer from Holt, Mo. “Some Republicans, because of comments Trump has made, which I grant are uncouth and certainly not politically correct, have found they can’t support him, although I think some of those people are coming around at this point.”

She said she was supporting Mr. Trump because she agreed with his policy positions.
Ms. Reinhardt clearly has a word salad translator, because I can't figure out half of Trump's positions from his run-on, stream-of-consciousness answers. So anyone who finds Trump as incoherent as me should give Ms. Reinhardt a call.

I wonder who would be less divisive for the Republican party, Trump, or the shrieking white-hot ball of pure rage (or is this a trick question?):

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