The religious right would have you believe that Donald Trump is restoring our honor as a nation. But apparently a good chunk of the nation missed the memo. That’s the only thing you can take away from a new Quinnipiac Poll that finds most Americans do not believe Trump is setting a good moral example.
Specifically, 63 percent of Americans do not believe Trump provides moral leadership, while only 33 percent believe that he does. It’s even more brutal when you look at the racial breakdown.
Do you think that President Trump provides the United States with moral leadership? GRAPH by racial group https://t.co/zEgRcFI2n1 pic.twitter.com/PMhY6ea13F
— Quinnipiac University Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) January 25, 2018
Tellingly, 55 percent of whites do not believe Trump provides moral leadership–a near-exact match to the percentage of whites who voted for him.
Additionally, two-thirds of Americans–67 percent–do not believe Trump is a good role model for children. The age breakdown is even more stark.
Do you think that President Trump is a good role model for children GRAPH by age group https://t.co/ioWjmklYYE pic.twitter.com/QKCTHQD3Dw
— Quinnipiac University Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) January 29, 2018
Even seniors–one of Trump’s strongest demographics–do not trust him as a role model for their grandkids.
Simply put, there’s virtually no good news for Trump in this poll. Well, there is. A whopping 80 percent of Republicans believe Trump provides moral leadership, while 72 percent feel he is a good role model for children. When Dana Milbank of The Washington Post saw those numbers, he saw this as one of the starkest examples yet of partisanship run amok.
Milbank recalled that Republicans seem to think Trump is a good role model even though we now know that his lawyer paid a porn star to keep quiet about an alleged affair with his client, went into a racist and vulgar rant about immigrants of color, gave his imprimatur to “a credibly accused child molester” in a special Senate election, and is mounting a smear campaign against the FBI. What does it mean that, even in the face of all this, Republicans overwhelmingly give Trump passing marks for morality?
“Yet so strong is the pull of tribalism that we’ve reached a point where partisanship outweighs morality. Republicans aren’t approving of Trump despite his behavior; in calling him a role model, they’re approving his behavior.”
And there’s no way the Trump diehards can say Milbank is grabbing at straws. After all, when Tony Perkins famously declared that the religious right was giving Trump a mulligan, he predicted that his compatriots would stand with Trump as long as he gives them what they want on policy. So basic decency takes a back seat to winning. Lovely.
Milbank believes the GOP’s willingness to condone Trump’s behavior has given an opening to the “seediest elements” of our nation. As evidence, he noted that the Anti-Defamation League reported a spike in anti-Semitic incidents during the first nine months of 2017. Additionally, a town manager in Maine was pushed out for going full white nationalist, and a state representative in Kansas harrumphed that blacks are basically junkies.
All of this leads Milbank to wonder–if and when Trump departs the scene, “what will be left of us?” It’s hard to say. But it’s rather ironic that the party of “traditional values” seems to be going all in for a man who doesn’t seem to have any values at all.
(featured image courtesy Michael Vadon, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
