General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump is the most unpopular President since Truman
Source: 538
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-going-on-with-trumps-approval-rating/
MarkmBha1
(31 posts)Impeach Trump Now, Speaker Pelosi.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)Nominating Convention leaving a 'cloud' over the Convention and hurting Truman in the November Election.
Other reasons given for unpopularity were rejecting the isolationists, Korean War, and the then popular rebellious MacArthur.
I visited the Truman Presidential Library and his home across the street.
Truman had character.
Celerity
(43,340 posts)The Korean War, bad economy and a large tax collection scandal were significant drivers.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/05/why-was-harry-truman-less-popular-than-george-w-bush.html
A CNN poll released May 1 pegged President Bushs approval rating at 28 percent, among the lowest in modern American history. The rating hasnt yet reached the all-time low of 22 percent, which Harry Truman received in a February 1952 Gallup poll. How did Truman manage to be less popular than George W. Bush?
The Korean War, a weak economy, and tax fixing. Truman had struggled in opinion polls beforemost notably before his comeback victory in the 1948 electionbut his approval ratings suffered a steady downward decline from early 1949. By February 1952, military operations in Korea had reached a stalemate, with congressional Republicans hammering Truman for botching the war. The conflict was also contributing to rapid inflation, despite an unpopular set of price controls the president had implemented. Although Democrats controlled Congress, splits within the partyparticularly between Truman and Southern Democratsmeant Truman faced a constant struggle in moving his agenda forward.
Truman was also mired in the continued fallout of a tax-collection scandal that had erupted a year earlier. Throughout the course of 1951, dozens of Bureau of Internal Revenue officials resigned or were forced out due to allegations of corruption. The White House was initially slow to respond to the wrongdoing, and the effort to appoint an independent investigator became mired in the internal politics of the administration. Coming on the heels of a loan scandal at the Reconstruction Finance Corp., the tax-fixing row tied into long-standing associations between the former senator from Pendergast and machine politics. (It didnt help that the chief alternative for the 1952 Democratic nomination appeared to be Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver, who had made his name with televised hearings into organized crime.) In a February poll conducted by Gallup, just 22 percent of respondents nationwideincluding only 35 percent of Democratssaid they thought the Truman administration would succeed in cleaning up corruption in Washington.
But while Truman spent most of his second term mired in low approval ratings, it isnt obvious why February 1952 was his low point. The presidents controversial firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur had occurred a full 10 months earlier. And his attempted seizure of the steel industrya move later stopped by the Supreme Courtdidnt occur until April. After February, Trumans ratings slowly began climbing upwardparticularly after his announcement March 29 that he would not seek another term in the White House. When the final Gallup poll of Trumans administration was conducted in December, his approval ratings had bounced back to 32 percent.
Snip
empedocles
(15,751 posts)approval ratings, it isn't obvious why February 1952 was his low point.'
I suggest, the listed more polite and official explanations given their due, - that the race issue was a huge undercurrent.
The historically massive shift of Southern Whites from the Democratic Party to the Republican side, started with a vengeance in Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat white supremacy party during the summer of 1948. This seems to have set off that long tectonic, deeply felt, hugely resentful shift, marked by Southern identification with the military and their military academies, 'impeach the SCOTUS for Brown v. Board of Education, Goldwater's anti NAACP stump speeches, LBJ's 'loss of the South for a generation', Nixon's Southern Strategy takeover of the South, - which endures to this day.
Celerity
(43,340 posts)that added to to it. Sorry if I came off as sounding differently.
Cheers
empedocles
(15,751 posts)We here are Truman fans.
The incidental linking of the Truman character, with that character traitortrump, sets me off.
Also provides an opportunity for historical perspectives for DU.
PJMcK
(22,035 posts)President Truman accomplished many things during his time as president, many of which were ahead of their time.
Trump hasn't accomplished a damn thing for most Americans. He's the laziest and most ineffective president in our history
Polybius
(15,398 posts)What BS.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,490 posts)on racial defamation steroids......
unblock
(52,208 posts)which i'm not sure is an ideal metric.
shrub benefits from the post 9/11 let's unite behind our only president crap, even though he was quite unpopular before and after.
nixon benefits from his earlier popularity before everyone realized he was such a disgrace to the office he had to be run out of town.
anyway, when it comes to obama, adjust for bigotry and he's as popular as clinton.
Yavin4
(35,438 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)table of presidential historians agreeing that Truman was one of our great presidents, if not for Korea definitely Rushmore material, as it was they agreed on his profile.