# Why are the Trump defectors having such little impact on the polls and Trump's chances? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 7, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041 "2020-09-07T17:35:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/61 "2020-09-08T18:12:49Z")
Not all conservative media- Fox has turned on trump. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/62 "2020-09-08T18:18:47Z")
3rd parties. See back in the recent past the 3rd parties were hard-baked racists and right wingers, who have now been accepted into the folds of the GOP. The Greens, the Libertarians (yes, i know, some vote GOP), etc continue. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/63 "2020-09-08T18:29:36Z")
I don’t really agree with that. There have been instances. There have been lines. There have been anchors/journalists who have created _moments_ highly critical of Trump, but if you watch Fox throughout the day (using C-4 to preemptively detonate your TV right after Brett Baier closes his broadcast, of course), you will still hear the gospel preached as loudly and strongly as it ever was. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/64 "2020-09-08T18:33:28Z")
> [@thickpancreas](#): > > Democrats are bigoted, incompetent, and corrupt. That can not be their only argument against Trump or you don’t get anywhere. Imagine you’re a kid being bullied by a neighborhood gang. One day a new gang moves in to your area and tells you that now you have to join their gang, or they’re going to tell everyone you’re a racist…that’s exactly how well the average democrat argument sells to the average republican. Can you give us some examples of the ways you believe the Democrats to be bigoted or corrupt? ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/65 "2020-09-08T18:40:58Z")
You might be overwhelmingly right. There’s very little doubt that Trump (aided by adversaries of our nation) did a superb job of finding the cracks in the armor – the ‘disenfranchised’ who were left behind by the good economies and the Democratic party, and then hammering them with horrible demagoguery and a relentless campaign of the cultural wedge issues. And that _is_ a problem for the Democrats to solve if they want to take power in any branch of government. But Trump has demonstrated that the best way to do that is to be _totally_ devoid of scruples and _crushingly arrogant_ in your cynicism and in your thinly-veiled disdain for your own supporters.\* And maybe that’s just not a good color for Democrats. I don’t mean to imply that Democrats are “better than” that. Maybe it’s simply not a club that they have in their bag. \*When Trump said that he, “could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose voters,” and that he “love[s] the poorly educated,” he wasn’t paying his supporters a compliment. He was calling them [Useful Idiots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot). When he inarguably lies to his supporters, flatly contradicting that which he just said, on video, _the previous day,_ fer Chrissakes, he is proving to himself that he can get away with absolutely anything, and – in doing so – insulting you in a way that the Democrats … really haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![thickpancreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@thickpancreas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thickpancreas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/66 "2020-09-08T18:45:46Z")
I live in one of the most progressive democrat run cities in the country. I have seen first hand the impact of their policies and ideologies on my family, and on my community. My city has one of the highest achievement gaps in the country. It has among the highest income inequality. Every time there’s an election we pick the same democrat politicians who push policies and culture that further encourage that, and they say they’re helping us all the while. But the message sells very well to the majority white community. They get to pat themselves on the back because they “voted for the party that’s sticking up for minorities.” The reality is their understanding of the problems facing the black community is so simplistic that it amounts to “Trump racist! Bad! Democrat fight for colored people!” ---
**Author:** ![thickpancreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@thickpancreas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thickpancreas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/67 "2020-09-08T18:48:01Z")
The democrats could have picked better candidates than Biden and Harris, especially for the black community. I find it very insulting that they chose not to, riding on the hopes that the disdain for Trump would be so great that people would believe they had no other choice. I guess you can argue whether or not that’s equally insulting, for some it is and for others it won’t be. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/68 "2020-09-08T18:53:38Z")
> [@thickpancreas](#): > > Democrats are bigoted, incompetent, and corrupt. That can not be their only argument against Trump or you don’t get anywhere. Imagine you’re a kid being bullied by a neighborhood gang. One day a new gang moves in to your area and tells you that now you have to join their gang, or they’re going to tell everyone you’re a racist…that’s exactly how well the average democrat argument sells to the average republican. I feel like you’re trying to make an argument here but I can’t really make out what it is. I inserted and transposed Democrat and Republican in various places and it still didn’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/69 "2020-09-08T18:55:04Z")
> [@thickpancreas](#): > > The democrats could have picked better candidates than Biden and Harris Much like our military, there isn’t currently a draft. We get to choose from … who we get to choose from. Because of the nature of our politic$, I firmly believe that we’re virtually guaranteed to never get the best people for the job. It is – as it so often is – a binary choice. It is – as it so often has been for me – a clear case of the lesser of the two evils. ---
**Author:** ![thickpancreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@thickpancreas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thickpancreas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/70 "2020-09-08T18:55:57Z")
Oh brother, remember when I talked about democrat arrogance? 🤣 Keep on, man. you’re really reaching hearts and minds. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/71 "2020-09-08T18:56:00Z")
> [@thickpancreas](#): > > The democrats could have picked better candidates than Biden and Harris, especially for the black community. I find it very insulting that they chose not to, riding on the hopes that the disdain for Trump would be so great that people would believe they had no other choice. I guess you can argue whether or not that’s equally insulting, for some it is and for others it won’t be. It was Blacks who gave Biden the victory, specifically Black Democrats in South Carolina. Biden was in 4th place at best going into South Carolina. Afterwards, based on the strength of the Black vote in that state, he was able to propel himself to winning the nomination. Now I suppose you could argue that the Black Democratic community of South Carolina doesn’t represent the Black community in the big cities on the west coast and the northeast, and that is true. But Biden would have lost had South Carolina been a fluke rather than a sign of things to come. ---
**Author:** ![thickpancreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@thickpancreas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thickpancreas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/72 "2020-09-08T18:57:54Z")
That’s a fair position to take, and I understand those who do. As I mentioned before, I simply choose not to vote at all. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/73 "2020-09-08T19:00:09Z")
> [@thickpancreas](#): > > The democrats could have picked better candidates than Biden and Harris, especially for the black community. I find it very insulting that they chose not to, riding on the hopes that the disdain for Trump would be so great that people would believe they had no other choice. I guess you can argue whether or not that’s equally insulting, for some it is and for others it won’t be. Like who, for example? Who would you have preferred to see as Democratic party nominees for P and VP? What are the main objections to Biden and Harris in the black community? ---
**Author:** ![thickpancreas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@thickpancreas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thickpancreas)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/74 "2020-09-08T19:01:16Z")
It’s true, Biden does still enjoy healthy support among blacks, very broadly speaking. But the fact that Trump of all people has been able to chip in to that support even a little is telling. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/75 "2020-09-08T19:01:54Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Democrats and liberals “falsely superior”. Can you explain why this is so? Where does the falseness lie? Being called “depolrable” by Hillary Clinton didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/76 "2020-09-08T19:08:22Z")
Anyway, getting back to the OP: Many Trump voters have a view of the “deep state” that basically anyone who opposes Trump, is by default a member of the deep state. So when they see those 70 national-security officials, or prominent Republicans, endorsing Biden, they just think “A few more minions went over to the Deep State” and don’t think twice. It has zero sway on them. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/77 "2020-09-08T19:09:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Being called “depolrable” by Hillary Clinton didn’t help. So you’re saying HRC was insincere in calling out bigots? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/78 "2020-09-08T19:10:00Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I don’t think this is correct. If Obama, Clinton, Sanders, or any number of other prominent Democrats had shown up at the Republican convention and endorsed Trump, things would already be over by this point. We’d be debating whether or not Biden would even break 100 EC votes. Would it budge _ **your** _ vote? Say Obama endorses Trump. Wouldn’t you just think, “Obama has lost his mind” and continue voting for Biden anyway? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/79 "2020-09-08T19:11:26Z")
Wait for it, wait for it…B-E-R-N-I-E!!! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041/80 "2020-09-08T19:14:46Z")
It probably didn’t, but pandering to their ignorance doesn’t help either - not in the long run. Voters who are ignorant as fuck and then take umbrage at being so are themselves part of the problem. It would be one thing if we were living in China or a country with censorship; we live in a pretty open society. It’s self-censorship and rejection of “elites” that is a major part of the suckage that we’re dealing with here, as evidenced by the proliferation of “maskholes” and this “You’re not the boss of me” mentality that has revealed itself during the pandemic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-trump-defectors-having-such-little-impact-on-the-polls-and-trumps-chances/920041.md?page=5)