Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:59 pm
Donald Trump’s campaign has certainly received the lion’s share of attention in 2016. Whether it’s his bigoted comments, violent rallies, or obvious lack of knowledge on the issues, he always finds a way to seize control of the spotlight. The media, of course, has been rather helpful.
Now, after winning the most delegates and clearing the Republican field, he is officially on his way to becoming the nominee of one of America’s two major political parties. Yes, that’s right: Donald J. Trump is the standard-bearer of a party once led by Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
As a result of Trump’s success, many of his supporters claim his campaign is a movement that has swept the nation. But Trump’s ability to win in a crowded field of candidates shouldn’t be mistaken for a movement. It simply isn’t.
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In total, Trump has only received a shade over 40 percent the Republican vote this primary season, and he has remained relatively unpopular with a sizeable chunk of GOP voters throughout the cycle. In a CNN poll out at the beginning of this month, a quarter of Republican voters don’t even like the spray-tanned billionaire. Among all Americans, that number climbs to almost 60 percent.
One of Trump’s newest boasts is the fact that he has received more votes than any Republican primary candidate in history. He’s right, but likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has gotten almost 2 million more votes than he has in a primary contest that just about everybody knew she would win.
And while Trumpites repeatedly say their candidate will win over Reagan Democrats – a nonexistent subset of voters that have essentially been voting for Republicans since before I was born – that same CNN poll shows Clinton receiving over double the amount of Republican support (12 percent) than Trump would get from Democrats (5 percent).
His supporters may be loud and loyal – and they may occasionally sucker punch anyone who doesn’t subscribe to Trump’s bigotry – but they don’t closely represent the opinions of the vast majority of Americans. Trump’s consistently high negative ratings among almost every demographic in America only validate that point.
It should also be noted that on virtually every issue, from the economy and immigration to trust and experience, Clinton beats Trump comfortably. Some movement, huh?
That doesn’t mean Democrats should make the mistake of being too giddy. There is plenty of time left for Trump to bring those negatives down and make it a close race – he could even win, God forbid.
But this is not a normal election. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two of the most well-known – and, in many ways, disliked – candidates to seek the presidency. Love them or hate them, opinions about each are already ingrained and odds of a major shift in public sentiment are probably low.
Regardless of the outcome, Trump’s campaign is not and never has been a movement, as the candidate likes to claim during his ramblings/press conferences/infomercials. At best, he is a weak general election candidate. At worst, he will destroy the Republican Party.
If you ask me, both of those scenarios bode well for the country.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
