The polling firm of Selzer & Co., which earns a rare "A+" from FiveThirtyEight, has surveyed once-and-future Republican primary voters and found them to be, at best, somewhat deranged; at worst, as abjectly psychotic as their presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
I use the word "psychotic" not in any derogatory way, but in its clinically objective sense: The mass Republican mind appears to have lost all touch with reality. Its world is precisely upside down. "Trump’s numbers are bad and getting worse," says Ann Selzer, who conducted her poll of two distinct worlds -- Republicans', and everyone else's -- for Bloomberg Politics. Notwithstanding Trump's worsening statistical badness, Republicans are, by and large, just wild about The Donald.
Nearly two-thirds believe he should be awarded the nomination even if he lacks the required delegate count to be awarded the nomination. The same percentage is indifferent to the otherwise mind-bending fact that the populist, heroically nationalistic, China-bashing protectionist has his ties made in China; and GOP voters persist in believing -- one assumes because the candidate simply keeps saying so -- that he possesses the best odds of beating Hillary Clinton in the general election.
In the real world he loses to Hillary by 18 points (Selzer's isn't the first poll to suggest a Clinton landslide), whereas Ted Cruz loses to her by only 9 points, and John Kasich beats her by 4.
Are you dumbfounded yet? Ah, but your real bewilderment has yet to begin. Check out this Trump-supportive comment from a 56-year-old, North Carolina kindergarten teacher: "He seems very arrogant and outspoken and he reminds me of my kindergarten students: whatever he thinks in his head, he says. I don’t know if I can trust him, but I like that he’s different."
Translation ... She feels like being "different" this morning; she has only five slugs in her six-round pistol, she's not sure she can trust that it won't go off, but she thinks she'll point it at her head and pull the trigger anyway.
Elsewhere, in the saner world, 68 percent see Trump unfavorably; 60 percent view the entire Republican Party unfavorably (17 points higher than the Democratic Party's unfavorable rating); and when "Asked if America is 'no longer great' or 'never stopped being great,' 63 percent pick Clinton's version."
The key discovery in Selzer & Co.'s polling is not, of course, that Trump's numbers are "bad." It's that they are getting worse. Were his Democratic opposition dealing with a rational party, this finding would be immensely worrisome: Oh my, heaven forfend that Republican voters, in the face of these darkening skies, jump to a more plausible contender -- such as Kasich -- yet rationality dictates that they will.
There is, however, little cause for such worry. For Republican rationality appears to be on permanent leave. If you doubt this, just reread the remarks by that North Carolina, kindergarten-teaching Trump supporter.
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