As I’ve stated previously, I don’t often write about politics because other people do it much better than I do. But there are a couple other reasons as well.
I figure that those who read this blog do so to get away from the harsh realities of the world for a few minutes, so writing about politics is somewhat counterproductive.
Plus, the truth of the matter is that I hate writing about politics. I hate talking about it. I hate thinking about it. It makes my blood boil and my blood pressure go sky high, and I fear that I’m going to have a stroke or an aneurysm or a heart attack or at least burst a blood vessel. So there doesn’t seem to be any benefit in it for me. Writing about religion does that to me as well.
I mean why not just choke myself and get it over with?
But I recently came across a couple articles that I’d like to pass along, and I also think it would be worthwhile to take a quick look back to see how we got to this point. It might be especially helpful to the readers outside the US of A, who may not be familiar with some of the recent history of our political parties, and to reassure them that whatever nonsense is currently happening in Washington, the majority of citizens do not support it.
Today I’ll go over the sad reasons why nearly 40% of the population still seems to support the person of whom Judge Lewis Kaplan has said that E. Jean Carroll’s accusation of rape is “substantially true”. In the next day or two I’ll try to summarize the brief history of the last few decades to show how we got into this predicament.
To explain that 40%, I can refer you to two articles: Why Do So Many People Still Approve of Trump? and Eight Men Control What 40% of Americans Believe
Here’s an executive summary.
For the folks who think that way, the border (and here we’re talking about the border to Mexico) is an existential crisis. They fear an onslaught of Mexicans (for them all Latinos seem to be Mexicans) streaming across the border and destroying the American way of life.
Where do they get this crazy, hateful idea? Fox “news”, is one place, but it only reaches about 2.7 million people. The real culprit is Sinclair Broadcast Group:
Sinclair Broadcast Group is a much bigger news source than Fox, and at least as right wing, if not more so. It operates 178 television stations that together reach 40% of the population. They cover local news and are part of their local communities. People trust them because their anchors cheer on the local high school football team and cover county fairs as big news. Sinclair requires all the stations to broadcast certain “must-run” segments produced at corporate headquarters. When trusted news anchors read the prepared scripts from corporate and tell people the border is in crisis, people believe them. They think they are getting the straight truth from a local, but they are actually getting a highly biased view concocted by Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley and other executives at Sinclair. This carries weight that Tucker Carlson can only dream about. Then there are smaller Fox wannabes like NewsMax and OAN that are constantly poking Fox from the right.
And then there’s social media. Facebook has gotten even worse in the last year thanks to Mark Zuckerberg. Two examples with regard to Renee Good, the woman murdered by an ICE agent:
One article explicitly tries to draw a false equivalence between her death and Ashli Babbitt’s [a Trump supporter who was killed while storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021], while another emphasizes that the officer involved suffered “internal bleeding” (ie. a bruise), framing the incident in a way that shifts sympathy and responsibility.
You may want to read at least one of those linked articles: Why Do So Many People Still Approve of Trump? or Eight Men Control What 40% of Americans Believe
Meanwhile, there is a New poll: Trump loses ground on immigration
I didn’t want to end on a sour note, so here is some potentially encouraging news, while at the same time it underlines the point about the border made above.
Immigration approval declining: Trump’s approval on immigration has dropped to 44% approve / 53% disapprove (net -9), and his deportation policy is at 42% / 54% (net -12). Border security remains his only positive issue at 50% / 46% (net +4). Trump’s numbers on all three have declined since our last poll in October, 2025.
Presidential approval: 40% approve of Trump’s job performance; 58% disapprove (net -18). This is a new low in our tracking. Just 27% of political independents approve of the president’s job performance (63% disapprove).
Generic ballot: Democrats lead Republicans among registered voters 51% to 43%, with 6% of voters undecided.
Democrats trusted on top issues: On the issues Americans rank as most important — prices, health care, and the economy — Democrats hold the advantage over Republicans over which party is seen as “best.”
Venezuela: 45% oppose the military strike; 53% oppose the U.S. temporarily running the country
ACA subsidies: 64% want Congress to restore the expired health insurance subsidies. 57% blame Republicans in Congress or Donald Trump for the coverage gap (26% say Democrats).
There’s lots more at that link.