Frank Luntz is a prominent pollster, generally considered a Republican. The London Times interviewed him on his latest focus groups. Luntz’s answers strike me as insightful in some cases, clueless in others:
Fresh from his latest focus group with supporters of the president, held in advance of Trump’s 100th day back in office on Tuesday, the veteran political analyst has made his verdict.
Luntz, 63, believes one word encapsulates a phenomenon that could shape the rest of the century — and not just in America. What we are seeing, he says, is a “dealignment”, from traditional political, intellectual and economic allegiances that have developed over decades. “It’s a rejection of the governing institutions and the people who lead them.”
I think that is correct. Old allegiances are fading fast. An example: not many years ago, an Indian-owned casino near the Twin Cities ran an ad that said: “Come in a Democrat, go out a Republican.” It was a clever ad, playing on the assumption that Republicans are upper-income and Democrats are lower-income. But it wouldn’t work today; wealthy people are the Democrats’ core demographic.
This is what Trump voters think, and they’re right:
As Joe from Missouri put it: “How do all these [members of] Congress and senators become millionaires when they’re supposed to be working for the people? ‘I’m a public servant.’ Bullshit. You’re an inside trader. You’re getting kickbacks.”
And:
“The very moment that Trump has re-ascended to power is the very moment that our institutions are at their weakest and the public is at its angriest. That is leading to a rejection of the status quo and embrace of anything that says: ‘Change’.”
At one of Luntz’s most recent focus groups Mike, a Trump voter from Pennsylvania, summed up what he likes best about the president: “The exceptionalism and his tenacity and just kicking ass and taking no prisoners. That’s what we elected him to do — and he’s just getting started.”
But then we have this:
Luntz says he found the strength of this feeling surprising. “In my Trump focus groups, they want to hold judges accountable. They want to hold Congress accountable — not just to defeat them but to punish them. It’s a value I’ve never seen in American politics until now, that desire to punish your opponent.”
Really? Did Luntz sleep through the last five years? Did he fail to notice that the Democratic Party impeached President Trump twice, unanimously tried to imprison him on the most absurd charges imaginable, and some of them tried to assassinate him? It is impossible to understand the feelings of Trump’s partisans without recognizing the unprecedented and outrageous actions of the Democratic Party in recent years.
Trump’s supporters aren’t that hard to understand. Nor are his frequently-venal opponents.
