Trump's Base Has Become Too Delusional for the GOP's Own Good

[kpete]

To acknowledge that Democrats are poised for a landslide would be to acknowledge that the American people do not overwhelmingly approve of his job performance. Therefore, Trump has assured his voters that all those reports about a “blue wave” are fake news, and that Republicans are certain to keep Congress in November. Fox News has dutifully echoed this message, and the GOP base has fully absorbed it. As Axios’s Jonathan Swan reports:

The president’s contempt for mainstream polling and the media may come back to haunt him in November. Several top Republican operatives working on the midterm elections told me Trump’s fanciful “red wave” predictions could depress Republican turnout and, ironically, serve to make any blue wave even bigger.



What we’re hearing: One of those strategists told me he’s detecting something interesting — and concerning — from focus groups of Trump voters. “You have Trump-MAGA loyalists, and their friends on Fox, who have reached a point of not believing polls and media people telling them things are going wrong, that I believe is actually causing the Republicans problems,” the strategist told me, granted anonymity in order to be candid.



“We’ve seen it in focus groups, with Republican base voters, where you’ll come up with a hypothetical that the Democrats win, and people are like, ‘That’s not going to happen, that’s stupid.’ … They’re like, ‘Oh, to hell with this crap, we were told Trump wasn’t going to win. It’s bullshit.’”

… “They watch Hannity… and hear that a red wave is coming to save the House. They really believe it’s going to be 2016 all over again.”

If Democrats do retake the House (as probabilistic forecasts currently predict), perhaps the GOP base will finally realize that their movement’s “fair and balanced” media outlets aren’t actually interested in keeping them well-informed. But it seems much more likely that they’ll follow their leader’s guidance — and conclude that Democrats are busing more “illegals” to the polls than they’d ever imagined.



MORE:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/2018-midterms-trump-red-wave-gop-base-delusional-fake-news.html

[Fred Sanders]

1. RW now not believing in polls is an extension of not believing in science. Another nail in the

coffin.

[Major Nikon]

2. Truth isn't truth

[Gothmog]

3. Will President Trump's overconfidence hold down Republican turnout in this year's elections?

Trump's arrogance and the general stupidity of trump's supporters could help a blue wave https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/08/20/will-president-trumps-overconfidence-hold-down-republican-turnout-in-this-years-elections/?utm_term=.90fb957953b6

But now some Republicans are worrying that Trump’s overconfidence may be not just unwarranted but actually a problem in itself, something that could make defeat more likely. Here’s what Jonathan Swan of Axios is reporting:

The president’s contempt for mainstream polling and the media may come back to haunt him in November. Several top Republican operatives working on the midterm elections told me Trump’s fanciful “red wave” predictions could depress Republican turnout and, ironically, serve to make any blue wave even bigger.

What we’re hearing: One of those strategists told me he’s detecting something interesting — and concerning — from focus groups of Trump voters. “You have Trump-MAGA loyalists, and their friends on Fox, who have reached a point of not believing polls and media people telling them things are going wrong, that I believe is actually causing the Republicans problems,” the strategist told me, granted anonymity in order to be candid. […]

Questionable outlier polls like Rasmussen that favor the president have lulled and reassured Trump’s base. The president tweets out the polls, his media mouthpieces echo them, and his voters feel pacified — and, several top strategists I’ve interviewed fear, less motivated to show up in November.