Know who's not convinced of how much Trump has done for black Americans? Black Americans. - The Washington Post
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump has been talking about Abraham Lincoln a lot recently.
This isn't because the 16th president has particular currency in the moment, given the renewed focus by activists on removing tributes to Confederate leaders from public spaces. It was Lincoln, after all, who won the Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, giving Southern slaves their freedom.
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No, Trump is talking about Lincoln a lot for another reason: He's telling anyone who will listen that no American president has done more for black Americans than himself, with Lincoln being the possible exception.
This claim doesn't withstand the slightest scrutiny, of course. Historians who spoke with The Washington Post identified numerous presidents who had done more for black Americans than Trump. Trump's insistence that what he has done — reforming criminal sentencing, funding historically black colleges — represents the apex of achievement for a president is hard to square with things like the Civil Rights Act. Even if you take at face value his presentations of what those accomplishments mean, which you shouldn't.
But Trump has hammered on this point, over and over. His campaign has clearly invested in the idea that he can perhaps woo black voters or, at least, get them not to bother going to vote for former vice president Joe Biden in November. After all, "I've done more for the black community in four years than Joe Biden has done in 47 years," the president said at his rally in Tulsa last weekend. This, too, is dubious.
This focus on black voters has been a repeated theme in his tweets and in his campaign's outreach as well. It also hasn't made any dent in his level of support among black Americans.
I can say this with certainty because The Washington Post, in partnership with the polling firm Ipsos, polled black Americans in January and this month, asking questions evaluating views of the country and of the president. Between those two polls, despite the barrage of rhetoric from Trump in the interim, views about the president haven't changed significantly at all.
In January, 7 percent of black Americans viewed Trump with approval. Three-quarters viewed him with strong disapproval. This month, 9 percent approve of Trump and three-quarters view him with strong disapproval.
In January, 83 percent of black Americans told us that they viewed Trump as racist. This month, we asked a slightly different question: Is Trump biased against black people? Eighty-seven percent of respondents said he is.
There's certainly an argument to be made that Trump's repeated mentions of what he has done for black Americans is meant not to convince them to vote for him but to convince white voters more broadly that he isn't racist or biased. If that's the case, it's an effort that almost has to be going better than any effort to earn more black votes.
At the time of that January poll, Biden wasn't yet his party's presumptive nominee. He was one of more than a dozen Democrats vying for that role, which he secured in early March. Our January poll asked about a theoretical contest between him and Trump, in which Biden prevailed by a wide margin among black registered voters — 78 points. Only 4 percent picked Trump, though 6 percent said they wouldn't cast a vote at all.
The June poll asked the question again, without explicit options for not voting or preference for another candidate — both of which were included in January given the ongoing primary. (Five percent said they would vote for another candidate at that point.) Now, Biden leads by 87 points. Trump still gets only 5 percent of the vote, an insignificant difference from January.
How many black Americans don't plan on voting? We asked about that, too. In January, 8 in 10 said they were probably going to vote or were certain to vote. In June, the figure was essentially unchanged.
The extent to which Trump has failed to convince black Americans of the success of his presidency can be summed up in two poll questions, one from each of our two polls this year. The central argument he has made to black voters for giving him a second term is that he will steward robust economic growth, an argument that got kneecapped more than a little by the coronavirus pandemic.
In January, we asked respondents how much credit Trump deserved for the then-low unemployment in the black community. About three-quarters said Trump deserved only some or hardly any credit for the unemployment rate.
This month, we asked a more specific question: Who did respondents think would do a better job on the economy? Despite Trump's focus on the issue, black voters said they trusted Biden more than Trump on the economy by an 11-to-1 margin. Eighty-six percent of respondents said the economy would be a very important issue in their vote for president. Grim numbers for a president who has repeatedly focused on the economy as a sales pitch.
Recent polling suggests at least one significant way in which Trump may not match Lincoln: Lincoln won two terms in office.
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The gop is delusional if they want to grow black vote.
They won't get any significant numbers of black voters to switch over to Trump.
I think the real reason trump is trying to make a show of appealing to black voters is really to appeal to a certain group of white voters! What he's actually trying to do if convince them that he's not a racist.
By this I mean a very important group for Trump-- especially this time around. Specifically, White, suburban, college educated women who usually vote Republican (for various reasons) but are generally fairly moderate. And who are appalled by his racist bigotry, his nastiness in general. Some are moderate fiscal conservatives.(some didn't like Hillary last time. Some are just habitual republicans from Republican families). but don't like Trump's bigotry, pandering to racists, constant lying, and overly nasty personal attacks.
They are a prime target for Democrats, who are hoping many will defect-- and many will. (Trump is trying to prevent that-- but these women are generally much more intelligent than the bulk of voters who form trump's base).)
It's a stretch to get them to vote for Biden, but perhaps they can be convinced to vote for a real Christian Nationalist, pro-life, anti social security, anti NATO, anti welfare, pro death penalty, English only, anti Voting Rights Act, anti global warming, Second Amendment, anti same sex marriage candidate.
Yes - The Constitution Party - a great party for them to vote for.
(Especially since it stands zero chance to win.)
I can't tell what the artist's name is, but the picture reminds me of Norman Rockwell's work.
Here is one version from Mad Magazine done by Richard Williams in 2017
It is a bit of edge based on the one in this seed.
The one in this seed was of course based on Rockwell's " Runaway ," from 1958, and done in 2014 by Anthony Freda .
Hope this helps - image search in Google is so nifty.