Inside the Beltway: Anti-Trump fervor backfires on Democrats

NEWS AND OPINION:

For months, Democrats have been warned by informed observers that they can’t build a winning election strategy for the 2018 midterms or the 2020 presidential election on anti-Trump fervor.

“You cannot just run against Donald Trump. It is the job of we Democrats to put together a strong, cohesive economic group of proposals aimed at the middle class and those struggling to get there,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer warned his party.

He said that in February.

Over time, other Democratic lawmakers and strategists have echoed the plea, even as their dreams of a “blue wave” waver as the public detects President Trump’s authentic economic and diplomatic victories — which typically get minimal media coverage. The poll numbers are beginning to waver as well. Upward.

“A recent Harvard University/Harris Poll provides some insights as to why President Trump’s support is actually increasing among voters and offers data to explain why he may be re-elected in 2020. I realize that many people don’t want to hear that, but hiding from a noxious reality is neither healthy nor helpful,” veteran pollster John Zogby writes in an analysis for Forbes, citing the influence of “a growing feeling of optimism” and rising approval of Mr. Trump across multiple demographics.

“The President can bolster his creds with both his voter base and beyond. It will also makes it much harder for Democrats to run on a slogan that argues that they can do anything ’better,’ as their current consultant-driven message suggests,” Mr. Zogby advises.

A conservative radio kingpin also notices that persistent anti-Trump tactics are wearing thin, and that the Democrats’ previous 15-percentage-point advantage on a generic ballot has eroded to nothing.

“They don’t have an agenda. All they’ve got is this hate, this hate for Trump, this semi-hate for America, this literal hate for you for electing Trump,” Rush Limbaugh told his 14 million listeners. “You can’t sustain this kind of hate, and you certainly cannot build and grow.”

Democrats are still driven by emotion and rage over Hillary Clinton’s loss, he said.

“They want to somehow change the outcome of the 2016 election. And as time goes on, the realization hits them each and every day that they are failing. And so they’re ratcheting up the radical extremism. And I think it’s hurting them. I think they have maybe — if not jumped the shark, they’ve crossed a line here, where who they are and what they are is beginning to repulse a lot of people,” Mr. Limbaugh said.

NOT WHAT MICKEY And DONALD WANT

Stand aside, now. Sen. Bernard Sanders heads for Anaheim, California, this weekend to rally with workers and union organizers at Disneyland. The Vermont independent is demanding all employees receive at least $15 an hour, and has organized a public petition again Disney CEO Bob Iger to get his point across. Mr. Sanders says the parent company is worth $150 billion and that Mr. Iger has a $423 million compensation package.

“At the same time — and this is a national disgrace — employees at the company’s theme park in Anaheim are paid so poorly that many of them are literally living in a tent city not far from the park,” the lawmaker notes. “This is not what Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are supposed to be about. This does not sound like the happiest place on Earth to me.”

He also plans to meet with truck drivers and warehouse workers in Los Angeles and rally with activists from Black Lives Matter and Real Justice.

“The political revolution continues,” Mr. Sanders advises.

MEANWHILE AT CHICK-FIL-A

Eric Mason, owner of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Sacramento, California, has raised his employees’ wages to $18 an hour, saying he believes success rests in “happy, well-paid workers.”

“That Mason is raising worker pay well beyond California’s minimum wage is a reminder that pundits on the left are flying blind when they emote about stagnant wages,” writes John Tamny, editor of RealClearMarkets and director of the Center for Economic Freedom at FreedomWorks. “They could learn a lot from Mason. Mason sees very clearly what they don’t: low-wage workers are incredibly expensive. They are because they’re not very productive. As is frequently said, you get what you pay for.”

THAT’S A LOT OF CONSTITUENTS

“The U.S. population keeps growing, but the House of Representatives is same size as in the Taft era,” writes Drew DeSilver, a senior writer for the Pew Research Center, who points out that the House currently has one voting member for every 747,000 Americans.

“That’s by far the highest population-to-representative ratio among a peer group of industrialized democracies, and the highest it’s been in U.S. history. And with the size of the House capped by law and the country’s population continually growing, the representation ratio likely will only get bigger,” Mr. DeSilver notes, saying that the representation ratio has more than tripled, going from 1 representative for every 209,447 people in 1910 — President William Howard Taft’s era — to 1 for every 747,184 as of 2017.

“The House’s hefty representation ratio makes the United States an outlier among its peers. Our research finds that the U.S. ratio is the highest among the 35 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, most of them highly developed, democratic states,” Mr. DeSilver says.

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POLL DU JOUR

• 47 percent of registered U.S. voters approve of the job President Trump is doing; 80 percent of Republicans, 44 percent of independents and 16 percent of Democrats agree.

• 43 percent approve of the job their district lawmakers are doing; 50 percent of Republicans, 45 percent of independents and 36 percent of Democrats agree.

• 40 percent would vote for the Democratic congressional candidate right now; 5 percent of Republicans, 23 percent of independents and 84 percent of Democrats agree.

• 37 percent would vote for the Republican candidate right now; 75 percent of Republicans, 22 percent of independents and 3 percent of Democrats agree.

Source: A Reuters/IPSOS of 1,080 registered U.S. voters conducted May 18-22 and released Tuesday.

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