Monday, January 22, 2018

Blame Game

This poll is from Friday so I’m not sure how long it will last; voters have the short-term memory of a goldfish.

By a 20-point margin, more Americans blame President Trump and Republicans rather than Democrats for a potential government shutdown, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

A 48 percent plurality says Trump and congressional Republicans are mainly responsible for the situation resulting from disagreements over immigration laws and border security, while 28 percent fault Democrats. A sizable 18 percent volunteer that both parties are equally responsible. Political independents drive the lopsided margin of blame, saying by 46 to 25 percent margin that Republicans and Trump are responsible for the situation.

Republicans use a shutdown as part of their tactics; they know that even if they’re in control of everything they can always blame it on someone else and get away with it, and they know their base hates government anyway and cheers when there’s a shutdown until it directly impacts them.

The last time the government shut down, Trump laid the blame not on Congress but on the president.

TRUMP: In my opinion – you know, I hear the Democrats are going to be blamed and the Republicans are going to be blamed. I actually think the president would be blamed. If there is a shutdown, and it’s not going to be a horrible shutdown because, as you know, things will sort of keep going…. If there is a shutdown I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the president of the United States. He’s the one that has to get people together.

Would you like a bandage for that bite on your ass?

In the long run it won’t really matter.  The polling after the last shutdown in 2013 also hit the Republicans but by the mid-terms in 2014 they were still able to stay in control of the House and Senate.  But this time there’s more going on than just fighting over CHIP and DACA, and the shutdown didn’t stop the Mueller investigation.  We’ll just pick up where we left off with Trump and his racism and warmongering.

One bark on “Blame Game

  1. I have a bad feeling about this. Everyone’s citing the WaPo-ABC poll, but there’s a newer one just out today showing that, while more people still blame Republicans, the margin has narrowed to 41%-36%. And while the public supports protecting the DREAMers, they attach a higher priority to keeping the government open.

    Nobody was even trying to get a clean CR through. They still aren’t.

    You’re probably right that this episode will be largely forgotten by November, unless the shutdown drags on for a long time. Democrats shouldn’t count on whatever impact it has being positive, though.

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