The DeSantis campaign is revealing what Republican voters want
What do conservatives think about Donald Trump and what he says about the state of the art? A personal perspective on a popular candidate from 2016 to 2020
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I talked to a lot of these kind of Republicans between 2016 and 2020 — not a perfectly representative sample, probably weighted too heavily toward Uber drivers and Catholic lawyer dads, but still enough to recognize a set of familiar refrains. Voters liked Trump’s policies more than his personality. They didn’t like some of his tweets and insults, so they mostly just tuned them out. They thought that he had the measure of liberals in a way that prior Republicans had not, that his take-no-prisoners style was suited to the scale of liberal media bias and progressive cultural hegemony. But they acknowledged that he didn’t always seem entirely in charge of his own administration, fully competent in the day-to-day running of the government.
It was always clear to the Republican primary electorate that they would vote for Donald Trump regardless of what happened to the former president. A smaller bloc strongly preferred a pre-Trump and un-Trump-like Republican; this has become the Nikki Haley constituency.
If Ron DeSantis surprises in Iowa and beyond, it’s likely to represent the triumph of a simple idea: That voters should be taken at their word about what they actually want from their leaders.
The values of the left of center are at stake because of the leaders who have givenlicense to conspiracy and have not had a majority of the country in their side. They’re tired of what they see as minority rule. Democrats have won seven of the last eight popular votes in presidential elections, but only five presidencies in that time.
Conservatives see a country changing, not for the better. They see the culture as too liberal, weak and enabling — with too many who talk down the good qualities of the country.
What is the 2024 election all about? The first ballots for Iowans in the hope that voters will cast an educated opinion on America’s future
In the last three decades, just four times since 1824 has the popular vote been tracked, and the last one happened in 1972 when President Nixon resigned in disgrace.
The country seems to be divided on that. America has always been split on who should lead it. A presidential candidate has got less than 50% in an election since 1984.
Domestically, there is a particular volatility roiling American society. Economics, technology, culture and politics are just some of the things the country is undergoing.
Presidents can affect social policy, through the courts and legislation, that can reshape the country. They can start wars or end them, embrace a role of leadership on the world stage – or retreat from it.
This highly consequential year will see the first ballots cast by Iowans. That’s a word that gets thrown around a lot in regards to political campaigns.
After more than a year of campaigning, voters will finally have their say in the presidential election in 2024.
It’s a major wild card and could introduce some surprises, and it all sets the stage for the presidential election that kicks off Monday with a GOP primary fight that features Republicans Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley hoping to unseat Trump as the head of the party – despite his historic leads in the polls.
It is conceivable that the increase in protest votes is related to it. It is possible that Biden and Trump would become the nominees. There are many third party candidates who want to steal votes from both men.
Is it a decline in participation? Well, despite negative partisanship, voter turnout has only increased since the closely divided 2000 election. It’s a key motivator when it comes to anger.
Source: What is the 2024 election all about, anyway?
How American Americans Think about the Elections: How Much Do They Think? Why Does The Former President Biden Have Such Low Approval?
Despite Trump’s popularity with his base, majorities of everyone else think the former president, who is facing 91 criminal counts, has done something illegal.
They’re not happy with the president, giving him low job approval on everything from immigration to foreign policy. In fact, Biden had the lowest approval rating of any president since Truman at the same point in his presidency before a potential reelection bid.
They are less confident in the institutions that have been pillars of American society and democracy, at near-record lows in their trust in government – and it’s only gotten worse.
The overall direction of the country is not something they’re happy about. Just 1 in 5 said they’re satisfied with the direction of the country, according to Gallup, though they rate how things are going in their own personal lives much higher.
Voters in the middle don’t agree on issues. According to the research center, the country is actually more like eight or nine distinct political ideologies and that self-identified independents have very little in common politically.
This increase in those who are calling themselves independent is a mirage. It doesn’t really reflect how they vote, merely the decline in the party’s brands.
That’s understandable because neither party is very well liked – each was viewed unfavorably by about 60% of Americans in a Pew Research Center survey in September.
