A Civic Take: Aided by a Struggling Economy, Trump’s Approval Ratings Continue to Suck
The Washington Post recently published a mildly dizzying article on Trump’s approval ratings, based on a new poll they conducted with ABC News. Okay, I lied—it wasn’t mildly dizzying. It was fully ridiculous. I can only assume that the writers were feeling especially empathetic that day when they came out of the gate citing Trump’s approval ratings to be “at the highest point in his Presidency”. While that’s technically true, at 44% I’m not exactly sure that’s anything to tout. If 44% is your highest score ever, you’re flunking out, dude.
It turns out that number is almost exactly the same as those who say it is “extremely important” or “very important” that Trump not win a second term — 43%. My personal favorite was when they asked respondents “all else being equal, if the election were between Trump and a Democratic candidate who you regarded as Socialist, who would you support?”. While Trump eked out a win in that highly theoretical and realistically impossible question (ALL else being equal?!), I just love how well the unnamed and perceptively Socialist candidate does.
Actually, the economy is not strong
Alright, so it’s a bad poll—and while that’s fun to point out, it’s not really the point. The point is that the economy is not strong. Yes, the stock market is doing well, but that only helps you if you own stocks, which a lot of
Americans don’t. The volatile performance of the stock market is a horrible way to measure the health of the actual economy, and a particularly horrible way to measure the well-being of middle- and working-class Americans, who own only 8% of stocks.
The real economy — the economy of jobs, wages, goods, services, and cost of living — is struggling. One third of all American workers earn less than $12 an hour, and 42% earn less than $15. Wages have barely kept up with inflation, let alone the cost of living, growing only 3% over the past decade. Congress has recently set the record for the longest stretch ever to not raise the minimum wage. Meanwhile healthcare costs, childcare costs, education costs and credit card debt are all rising. That doesn’t sound like a booming economy, and it sure as hell doesn’t feel like one to the millions of Americans living in it.
So, if you want to give Trump credit for the economy, go for it. Seriously, knock yourselves out. He’s succeeded in ensuring that those at the top keep getting obscenely rich from their rising stock prices, massive tax cuts, government subsidies, stock buybacks — the list literally goes on and on. As president, Trump has thrown his all of his weight into trickle-down policies that benefit the rich and powerful, hurt workers, and damage the overall American economy. Damn right he’s unpresidential. For an otherwise reputable publication to feed the lie that our economy is strong, and to use that lie to position Donald Trump positively, is irresponsible.
