Beware the 'rational' public
Americans thought Trump was too old in 2023. What changed their minds?
Greg Sargent brought my attention to this data point. Fifty-five percent of Americans do not think Donald Trump has the mental soundness to serve effectively as president. "This is really something," Greg said with understatement. The Washington press corps spent the better part of four years picking apart Joe Biden's age. Trump's age rarely gets equal treatment. Yet here, in a Fox poll no less, we see substantial public awareness of his deficits.
Before you start blaming the press corps for America's problems, however, let me add my own observation to Greg's. While 55 percent of Americans do not currently think Trump is of sound mind, 56 percent believed the same thing way back in May 2023. And that was a five-point jump from where things stood in July 2020. In other words, a majority of Americans already believed Trump was unfit mentally – which is to say, they already believed he was too old to be president – after the 2020 election, and then well into the campaign for 2024.
And yet a majority elected him anyway.
John Stoehr
I don't know if I have an explanation for this. If you have one, please let me know in the comments below. But what I will say is this. As we get closer to this year's congressional elections, and as we see more polling showing growing majorities increasingly dissatisfied with the president's job performance, you might be tempted to believe that the American people are coming to their senses – that politics is returning to some kind of normal.
While it may be true that the Democrats take the House, and perhaps the Senate, and while that would be good for democracy, it's also true, according to this poll, that a majority larger than today's majority, in 2023, believed he was of unsound mind. And then, a year and a half later, that same majority ... just changed its mind. Donald Trump wasn't too old after all.
In other words, please do not be tempted to attribute rational thinking to a voting public that is deeply, deeply irrational. Is that too much? Let me know in the comments below.
--John Stoehr
This president is running a war, you know?
Courtesy of Aaron Rupar.
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