One demographic group you won’t see mentioned in poll results from Quinnipiac, Monmouth, or pretty much anywhere else is “aggressive a**hole[s].” Nonetheless, according to Washington Monthly blogger Martin Longman, such voters have constituted the key bloc in this year’s Republican presidential primary-and-caucus process.
“If you take the electorate and subtract every laid off mechanic and guy over 40 who obsessively fantasizes about being a successful golf pro, [Donald] Trump’s support approaches zero,” asserted Longman in a Thursday post. “The GOP has been so denuded of ordinary people that the aggressive a**hole vote is now a big enough plurality of the party to decide their nomination. This becomes doubly clear when you realize that the main alternative to Trump is Ted Cruz, who almost defines the aforementioned term of non-endearment.”
From Longman’s post (bolding added):
What was hidden in [Trump’s] polling numbers…was just how differently Republicans (and particularly Republican men) view the universe…
…Two-thirds of political independents have an unfavorable view of Trump, as do 74 percent of Americans under age 40; 75 percent of women, and 81 percent of Hispanics. Majorities in each group see Trump in a “strongly unfavorable” light…
Even Republican women are down on Trump, with only 47% of…them giving him a positive review. Trump’s success is driven entirely by his 64% popularity with white Republican men.
If you take the electorate and subtract every laid off mechanic and guy over 40 who obsessively fantasizes about being a successful golf pro, Trump’s support approaches zero.
So, perhaps the most shocking discovery of this campaign season is that the GOP has been so denuded of ordinary people that the aggressive a**hole vote is now a big enough plurality of the party to decide their nomination. This becomes doubly clear when you realize that the main alternative to Trump is Ted Cruz, who almost defines the aforementioned term of non-endearment.
…[W]e all knew who Trump was going into this. After all, Birtherism is synonymous with being aggressively wrong and proudly rude and stupid. What we didn’t know (most of us, anyway) is that the GOP had devolved to the point where these were considered positive attributes and desirable credentials in someone who seeks the nuclear codes.
It’s looking increasingly possible that Trump will be denied the nomination despite winning the most votes, the most states, and the most delegates. [This] is undoubtedly a good thing…But what we now understand is the nature of the beast the Republicans created with their no-holds-barred opposition to President Obama.
