Substantial Block of Americans Remember Trump as 'Being Good for America'
And somehow, they view Biden as being 'bad for America.'
The cinder block can withstand almost any weather event, and in recent years, it has become really popular in Florida because it can withstand hurricanes and flooding. While they are pretty versatile, to most non-builders, the cinder block is an ugly and unpleasant piece of masonry.
Nonetheless, they are everywhere in our nation because they were the go-to material for many builders for decades after they were introduced in Portland, Maine, in 1900 by Harmon S. Palmer.
There is a cinder block in our society that seems somehow to withstand any horrific event, slur, criminal or treasonous act, and disgrace that Donald Trump throws their way. These Americans — I struggle to call them that anymore — sincerely regard the Trump presidency as the “good old days.”
Many voters still remember Mr. Trump as a divisive and polarizing figure, giving him low ratings on race relations and unifying the country. Yet, a larger share of voters see Mr. Trump’s term as better for the country than the current administration, with 42 percent rating the Trump presidency as mostly good for the country compared with 25 percent who say the same about Mr. Biden’s. Nearly half say the Biden years have been mostly bad for the country (Four Years Out).
One such voter is 23-year-old restaurant worker Maya Garcia from California. She describes herself as a “former Trump hater.” She now plans to vote for Trump in November. Maya is obviously not so bright. Maya is what I am calling the “cinder block” American. Ms. Garcia is also a product of the 2000s. At 23, she was born in 2001 and grew up in a country shaped by the Bush wars, the Tea Party, and Fox News. The fascism born in the twisted metal of the Twin Towers has turned her into an American I dare call a fellow citizen.
I would pose the rhetorical question, “What are these people thinking?” But they clearly aren’t thinking. She is the epitome of intellectually lazy. The kind of person who will sit for 40 minutes in the drive-thru at McDonald’s, idling her car instead of popping in and making her coffee purchase in three to five minutes (McDonald’s has lovely coffee). Then, she will say something like she is “too busy” to educate herself on the day’s issues. During those 40 minutes in the drive-thru, she spent her time on TikTok and Instagram, “liking” brain-cell-siphoning images and videos.
In the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency, more than 450,000 Americans died from COVID-19, and life expectancy fell by 1.13 years, the biggest decrease since World War II. Many of the deaths were avoidable; COVID-19 mortality in the U.S. was 40 percent higher than the average of the other wealthy nations in the Group of Seven (G7).
In a Lancet report by the Commission on Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era, released on February 20, we chronicled Trump’s effects on population health. His incompetent and malevolent response to the COVID-19 pandemic capped a presidency suffused with health-harming policies and actions.
Faced with the pandemic, Trump suppressed scientific data, delayed testing, mocked and blocked mask-wearing, and convened mass gatherings where social distancing was impossible. Despite the mounting threats of COVID-19 and global warming, he pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord.
He installed industry insiders in regulatory posts tasked with protecting Americans from environmental and occupational hazards; their regulatory rollbacks resulted in 22,000 excess deaths from such hazards in 2019 alone. He pushed through a $1.9 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, creating a budget hole that he then used to justify cutting food and housing assistance for the needy. He tried, but failed, to repeal the ACA, then bent every effort to undermine it, pushing up the number of uninsured Americans by 2.3 million. He denied entry to refugees fleeing violence, abused immigrant detainees, and penalized immigrants for accessing basic social services (Policy Failures Have Exacted a Heavy Toll).
There are millions of cinder blocks like Maya Garcia. This is a massive problem for Joe Biden’s chances of being re-elected, for America and the world. Biden’s communications team is about as effective as a Good Humor ice cream truck sprawling around a post-dinner-time neighborhood in a town where 100 percent of the citizens are deaf.
The thing is, though, even if Biden’s team suddenly finds its voice, the truth of their argument will nonetheless fall on the ears of very stupid people. Stupid is as stupid as does, and Maya Garcia, while she may be a nice person, is dumb. She reasons that Trump loves America, and his policies made it safer, which is a response we could expect from a person who had a cinder block fall on their head.
People are dangerously dumb, and millions — even billions — of them should be nowhere near heavy machinery and sharp things. And yet, they are voting Republican and think Donald Trump is a good person.
President Biden has devoted a significant portion of his campaign to reminding voters of some of Mr. Trump’s most inflammatory statements and failed policies, particularly regarding his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and controversial comments about Black and Hispanic voters.
And while the issue of abortion rights has been front and center in the general election campaign, less than 2 percent of voters mentioned abortion or Mr. Trump’s role in the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade as the main thing they remember from his presidency.
Some of the visceral fear about Mr. Trump’s presidency also seems to have faded. In October 2016, 40 percent of voters said they were scared of what Mr. Trump might do if elected. Now, 31 percent say they are scared (Four Years Out).
What these responses tell us is that Biden’s strategy is failing and that abortion is not the issue the hard-core liberals think it is. Maya Garcia is 23, and she doesn’t care about abortion. How many more cinder blocks like her are out there?