The following article by Kenneth T. Walsh was posted on the U.S. News and World Report January 26, 2018:
For many years, pollsters and political consultants have pointed out that likability is one of the most important attributes for presidents to have in order to succeed as effective leaders.
But President Donald Trump has developed a severe likability gap, and it’s one of his biggest liabilities as he begins his second year in office.
Veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart, one of the nation’s most respected political analysts who helps conduct the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, says, “President Donald Trump’s first year in office can only be described as a year of personal alienation from voters,” with 38 percent of Americans saying they are “disgusted” with him and how he has performed his job.
In an email summary of his research provided to reporters, Hart wrote, “Based on more than a half century of watching and analyzing public opinion ratings of U.S. presidents, I have found that personal feelings toward the president – not job ratings – tell us more about their acceptability. Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton did better in terms of their personal popularity than the more accomplished presidents, Johnson, Nixon and Bush 41. Like cars with good shock absorbers, presidents with personal popularity seem to take the bumps with far less damage than those who are less popular. Even in their post-presidency, these presidents are recalled more favorably than their actual records might merit.”
Today, only 36 percent of Americans have a positive view of Trump and 56 percent view him negatively, compared with 38 percent who felt positively about Trump and 48 percent who were negative when he started. This shows that the percentage of positive raters is relatively small if stable but more Americans are negative about him than before. Hart sees the latest poll results as “a full-force repudiation of President Trump’s personal and professional character.”
Much of Trump’s problem derives from his attempt to be the disrupter in chief, shattering the norms of presidential behavior and making himself into something of a political ogre to millions of Americans. He insults adversaries and allies, coarsens the public dialog, declares “war” on the “fake” mainstream news media, refuses to admit he is wrong or to apologize when he offends someone, blames others when things go wrong, and shows little or no empathy for the downtrodden and the downcast. He regularly contradicts himself and spreads falsehoods, such as his claim that he has accomplished more during his first year than virtually any of his predecessors, even though historians say his successes were far fewer than those of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
>Trump scored two important victories during his first year, with a huge assist from the Republican majority in Congress – Senate confirmation of conservative Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and providing tax cuts to the wealthy, corporations and, to some extent, the middle class. And his administration has been unilaterally rolling back federal regulations at a fast clip. All of this has been popular with his base. But he hasn’t broadened his appeal, and it’s unclear how much of his remaining agenda can be passed any time soon, such as constructing an expensive wall between the United States and Mexico, and rebuilding the nation’s decrepit infrastructure including roads and bridges. Trump appears to have a dubious influence on fellow Republicans in Congress when the chips are down, as seen in the struggle over last weekend’s government shutdown, where Trump stayed on the sidelines as congressional leaders took the lead.
The messy fight over the shutdown, which ended Monday with a tentative agreement that delayed another showdown for only three weeks, showed that both the Democrats and the Republicans have hardened their commitments to core constituencies that are deeply at odds. Democrats are responding to their liberal base, which wants to protect immigrants, encourage diversity and take a strong stance against Trump. Republicans have adopted a conservative agenda which is hostile to undocumented workers, cuts many federal programs and reduces the federal role in society, and they are accusing Democrats of being obstructionists. But many conservatives doubt that Trump is truly one of them and many legislators don’t like him personally, which makes forging long-term alliances with Trump very difficult.
The result has been a stubborn failure by all sides to compromise on big issues, adding to the dysfunction in Washington.
View the post here.