How do you think the recent SCOTUS ruling, that the President cannot be held accountable for any official acts, will effect Trump voters and/or Biden voters and/or fence-sitters? Will the Trump voters turn out in greater numbers because they have a chance to elect a king (of sorts)? While it encourage Biden supporters to get out the vote? Which way will the fence-sitters jump in reaction to this news?
I think that all depends on the level of knowledge the fence-sitters have about the actual decision and what it means. I don’t like the phrase “low-information” voters but more and more I realize that likely accurately describes the bulk of the electorate. Do most people absorb anything beyond the headline or the tweet? And what about all the people who don’t vote at all?
The critical civics lesson for people between the ages of 18 and 30 (i.e., my kids) is to pay attention to the SCOTUS decisions of the last week and understand how different they would have been had Trump not been responsible for the last three bench appointments. Realize how much worse the future for you and your children will be if he gets another bite at that apple. These appointments last decades and shape America in profound ways. The only chance we have to turn this appalling ship around is to keep Trump away from the White House.
I think most people will see reports of Trump gloating and declaring victory, and they will assume he won something in the Court. Democrats will try to explain things and Trump’s fans will feel like the libs got owned, but understanding what happened will require more thought and more time than most Americans seem to have. So, no, I don’t think this news will move the needle much, if at all.
More thought and more time to make decisions? Not in our America!
I think that the Biden campaign needs to be careful. On the one hand if they try to push the message that Republican-appointed members of SCOTUS overreached in declaring the POTUS above the law, that could rally people on the left or in the middle to vote as overturning Roe did before during the midterms. But it also might reinforce the idea that any prosecution of Trump is invalid, and feeds into his narrative of being the victim of a witch hunt. So, I’m not sure what the best move is here; to use it in the messaging or focus on other things.