After years of gaslighting voters about supposed existential threats to democracy or even to the planet itself, it turns out that the establishment and its media lapdogs have not convinced Americans to stop caring about their own prosperity and security.
Nor has relentless fear-mongering scared voters away from the candidate they regard as most likely to put Americans’ interests first.
An NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters conducted in the final days of January showed former President Donald Trump holding massive leads over President Joe Biden on the two issues voters have identified as most important to them.
On the economy, voters preferred Trump by 22 percentage points, 55-33 over Biden. And on “securing the border and controlling immigration,” voters preferred Trump by a gargantuan 35-point margin, 57-22.
Overall, the poll offered Biden few silver linings.
For instance, the president’s approval rating stood at only 37 percent compared to 60 percent disapproval.
In its report on the poll, NBC noted that Biden’s approval numbers have hit an all-time low for his presidency and have plunged to depths not seen since former President George W. Bush’s second term.
Meanwhile, 37 percent might have approved of Biden, but only 16 percent said they “strongly” approved. For comparison’s sake, the 60 percent who disapproved included 49 percent who did so “strongly.”
All of this added up to a 47-42 lead for Trump in an expected 2024 general election matchup. When third-party or independent candidates entered the mix, Trump’s lead increased to six points, 41-35.
What It Means
The NBC poll produced five major takeaways.
First, the results showing Trump with huge leads over Biden on the economy and immigration aligned with other recent polls. And this bodes well for the former president.
Last month, for instance, a much larger Pew Research poll of 5,140 adults found that despite some increased economic optimism among Democrats and left-leaning independent voters, Biden earned an overall approval rating of just 33 percent.
Pew described voters’ general economic outlook as “less negative” since April 2023. Concerns over energy prices and the stock market have diminished somewhat, but anxieties over prices of food, housing and consumer goods have held steady.
While the economy always occupies voters’ attention, a recent deepening of Americans’ concern over border security could also spell doom for Biden.
Andrew R. Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies used historical terms to describe a Harvard/Harris poll conducted last month.
“For the first time in my recollection, ‘immigration’ now tops the list of the most important issues facing the country today in the opinion of voters,” Arthur wrote.
Thirty-five percent of respondents to that poll identified immigration as their most important issue, compared to 32 percent who pointed to price increases and inflation.
The picture looks similar in the swing states, where poll respondents have consistently criticized Biden on these issues.
In April 2023, for instance, Politico reported a 58 percent disapproval rating for Biden on immigration. That number came from a poll of “1,201 likely 2024 general election voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”
A Bloomberg poll of 5,023 voters in those same seven states, conducted in October, showed Trump with a 49-35 lead over Biden on the economy.
Last month, another Bloomberg poll had Trump leading 52-30 on immigration and 51-33 on the economy. The same poll gave Trump a 48-42 lead overall in swing states.
On major issues, therefore, the NBC poll supported other polling data that might suggest a favorable electoral map for Trump.
The second major takeaway from the NBC poll involved changes over time.
For instance, since September 2020, Trump’s lead over Biden on immigration has more than doubled. At that time, the then-president led his then-Democratic challenger by only 16 points on the issue, 49-33.
Recall that the recent NBC poll showed Trump with a 57-22 lead on immigration. That 19-point swing toward the former president undoubtedly reflected Biden’s catastrophic failure to secure the border.
Likewise, Trump’s lead on the economy has more than tripled from 7 points in October 2020 (48-41) to 22 points in last month’s poll (55-33).
Trump has turned the tables in other areas, as well. Where he once trailed Biden on questions such as competence and effectiveness and “mental and physical health,” Trump now leads by 16 and 23 points, respectively.
On balance, trends over time have seen a massive shift toward the former president.
Third, one must never forget the yawning chasm between voters’ priorities and the corrupt establishment’s sinister agenda.
Voters, of course, care about their nation’s prosperity and border security. Their elected officials, however, have made it clear that money for foreign wars takes precedence over Americans’ actual concerns.
That chasm makes a mockery of the notion that the U.S. is a free republic.
Fourth, the dying establishment media still has nine months to gaslight the public in hopes of resuscitating Biden’s fortunes.
While we will enjoy that slow and hopefully painful death, we must avoid its premature declaration. Polling data from NBC and other outlets has shown that the establishment media narrative still influences minds.
For instance, the latest Bloomberg poll showed that 30 percent of respondents in swing states blamed the Trump administration for the influx of illegal immigrants.
Thus, we might set 30 percent as a baseline figure for establishment-fueled Trump Derangement Syndrome. After all, if TDS-afflicted voters can blame Trump for the border crisis, then they can blame him for anything.
Likewise, the NBC poll showed that despite Trump’s favorable numbers, at least one false narrative has stuck in voters’ minds.
On the question of “protecting democracy,” Biden led by two points, 43-41 — despite Trump’s massive leads on major issues and factors relevant to job performance.
Many voters, in other words, have swallowed the establishment’s lies about the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021.
Furthermore, we cannot discount the subtle ways in which the establishment media deceives its readers and viewers, even on the issues voters regard as most important.
Politico, for instance, referred to “a record number of migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil.”
No doubt some have fled such turmoil, but the wording suggested persecuted fugitives seeking asylum rather than opportunistic migrants drawn to an open border. And it probably did so by design.
Finally, it does appear that establishment shenanigans have had their desired effect to a certain extent.
The NBC poll showed that in the event of a Trump felony conviction, the overall advantage would shift to Biden. It would be a narrow margin, 45-43, but it would reflect the views of a still-slumbering portion of the electorate.
Of course, we cannot say how many voters might have already shifted to Trump due to Biden’s tyranny.
Nonetheless, it remains clear that Democrats still hope to defeat the former president by means other than the ballot box.
