Time after time, we have seen how Donald Trump’s untrustworthiness prevails through his issues with degrading women. At this point in the election process, the numbers are becoming more predicable and clearer. There is a chance Trump could lose this election, and when push comes to shove, a large contributing factor to that could be the repeated surfacing of his comments about women. A casual recent comment included, “Oh, I’m sure she’s never been grabbed before.” in reference to a porn star (Jessica Drake) who is accusing him of inappropriate physical activity. I would like to argue that not only Donald Trump’s continuous misconduct such as this, but also the way he has handled the accusations, has caused him to lose many polls.
Trump and Jessica Drake, 2006
The New York Times explains how Trump “sees a different reality” than the polls. But, is the reality Trump is seeing an actually realistic viewpoint? Trump says he is winning, his supporters think the polls aren’t real, and he even claims that “seventy-five percent of the American people, based on the polls, think our country is headed on the wrong track”. Claims can be made from each and every which way possible, but to get down to the matter, how has Trump been able to still be successful enough for a close race despite problem after problem with accusations? In class we discussed the idea of “try or die” with Trump and how this is the only alternative. Trump is obviously aggressive with forceful and authoritative actions, and his attack has created a unique vision for America that has caused people to see a good reason to vote for him. Many may argue that his biggest problem also lies in this and can be seen from a different perspective, one from him “coming off the rails” (in class discussion). As stated above, it seems although his “try or die” approach has helped him to an extent, him “coming off the rails” has hurt him more, which has in turn caused him to lose polls. The NYT article previously discussed is a prime example of this.
Many may say there isn’t hope for Trump at this point in time, and although I disagree, I see how the contributing factors (such as females, which affects the female vote) in his approach are hurtful. In the end, time will tell.
I think the base that he built in the primary of white males, as well as a few others, are loyal enough to him and make up a large enough part of the electorate that he will always have a loyal set of supporters. But his real problem is the fact that he is hemorrhaging voters from the small set of independent median voters that have problems with the things he has said. This includes largely white women who usually vote conservative but have been off put by his actions. However he is failing to realize that these few percentage points he keeps dropping by are not his base leaving him, but instead the few moderates he managed to pick up in the beginning.