John Zogby, founder of the Zogby International polling company, expressed surprise on Wednesday when reporting on the president’s approval numbers from his latest poll: “The president has recorded his best job approval rating on record — 52%.” He added, “he improved drastically with younger voters aged 18-29 — 50% … [and] with Independents — 44%.” He was also surprised to see that “nearly a quarter of Democrats at least somewhat approved of the president’s job performance.”
When it came to African-American voters, Zogby said “the president’s numbers were much better than we saw in previous polling … [and were] very high among young African-American voters aged 18-29.” He added: “Our polls have registered this phenomenon before but not at the current levels.”
Zogby surmised this was due to the rise in crime in our nation’s biggest cities: “Unlike a year ago, the president is performing well with voters in large cities. It’s highly likely [that] he is benefitting from the uptick in violence. His law and order message is resonating with urban voters.”
That fact is finally dawning on Democrats, who have let rioters run wild in major cities across the country.
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It was clear to Bill Ballenger, editor of the Ballenger Report on Michigan politics back in June: “I’m inclined to think that, if Trump doesn’t put his foot in it again with a tweet or two, [the November election] is more likely to be like 1968.” That was the year, it will be remembered, when Nixon’s strong “law and order” campaign gained him the victory over Hubert Humphrey by a narrow margin.
Speaking of that election, Donald Critchlow, head of Political History and Leadership at Arizona State University, said, “Following racial riots there was a voter backlash that helped win Richard Nixon’s election in 1968. Democrats failed to offer an alternative to cities in turmoil other than saying we needed to pour more money into cities.”
Looking ahead to November, Critchlow said, “Expect a big voter backlash against the Democrats in 2020. Democratic mayors and governors have shown themselves incapable of governing. Whatever sympathy they had at first for demonstrators has been lost as small business stores burned, large department stores looted [and] national monuments defaced.”
That coming reality is finally dawning on CNN anchorman Don Lemon, who, on Tuesday, awakened from his slumber and said, “The rioting has got to stop. It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups.”
“There’s no doubt it’s playing into Trump’s hands,” said Paul Soglin, a former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: “There’s a significant number of undecided voters who are not ideological … [but] they are the people who decide elections. And they are very distraught about … the safety of their communities.”
It has also awakened the sleeping mouthpiece of the Left, the New York Times. On Thursday, two journalists warned:
The politically calculated warnings of President Trump and the Republican Party about chaos enveloping America should Democrats win in November are reverberating among some people in Kenosha….
In Kenosha County, where the president won by fewer than 250 votes in 2016, those who already supported Mr. Trump said in interviews that the events of the past few days have simply reinforced their conviction that he is the man for the job.
But some voters who were less sure of their choice said the chaos in their city, and the inability of elected [Democrat] leaders to stop it, were currently nudging them toward the Republicans.
And some Democrats, nervous about condemning the looting because they said they understood the rage behind it, worried that what was happening in their town might backfire and aid the president’s re-election prospects.
It’s likely to be too late for Democrats to try to stuff the violent genie back into their bottle of dirty tricks. Look for the rioters to reinforce the president’s “law and order” message and help him win in November.
Image: AP Images
An Ivy League graduate and former investment advisor, Bob is a regular contributor to The New American, writing primarily on economics and politics. He can be reached at [email protected]
