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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump's Environmental Rollbacks Are Deeply Unpopular With Swing Voters
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/trumps-environmental-rollbacks-are-deeply-unpopular-with-swing-voters/5 hours ago
Trumps Environmental Rollbacks Are Deeply Unpopular With Swing Voters
Hes supposed to be protecting our country and our world.
Zoya Teirstein
This piece was originally published in Grist and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership.
It may be hard to tell, but in between jabs at climate science, federal science agencies, and stalwart environmental regulations, President Trump has been trying to position himself as an environmentalist. The presidents efforts to green his image go back as far as 2017, when he told business leaders, and I quote, Im a very big person when it comes to the environment. Do voters agree? New research shows they most certainly do not.
Swing voters in four key statesFlorida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Michiganare squarely opposed to Trumps environmental rollbacks. Thats the takeaway from a set of focus groups of dozens of swing votersdefined as those who switched their presidential vote from Democratic to Republican, or vice versa, between 2012 and 2016run by a non-partisan research groups Engagious and Focus Pointe Global.
Unlike polls, the focus groups dont reflect the opinions of a representative sample of likely voters. Instead, they give us a glimpse into the minds of voters whose preferences could determine who will sit in the Oval Office come January. The participants were asked to rate their support for Trumps environmental rollbacks on a scale of 1 to 10 twice: before seeing a list of 17 policies hes gutted and after. (Those 17 policies were pulled from a comprehensive list of rollbacks compiled by the New York Times.) The groups ratings averaged 4.5 before seeing the rollbacks and 3.2 after.
In Florida, a state thats particularly aware of the consequences of rising temperatures and seas, the average dropped to 2.6 after seeing the rollbacks enumerated. Before seeing that list of rollbacks, my hand would have been up 100 percent for Trump, one Florida focus group participant and 2016 Trump supporter said. After seeing it, my hand was not up. Im not 100 percent sold on him. Another participant asked why she supported Trump less after seeing the list of rollbacks, said she didnt know about half of those rollbacks before seeing them. To me, it made a difference to actually see them and process it, she said. Another participant said she didnt expect or want Trump to roll back those regulations, despite voting for him in 2016. Hes supposed to be protecting our country and our world, she said. Hes supposed to be a world leader.
Trumps environmental rollbacks might not be enough to prompt these swing-state voters to choose a Democrat in the voting booththat first Florida participant who said hes not 100 percent sold on Trump said hes still 80 percent sold on Trump just because of a lot of the other things he stands for. But the focus group results do show that Trumps rollbacks are supremely unpopular with the people whose presidential votes count the most.
Other research supports the idea that climate change is an important consideration for bipartisan voters. In South Carolina, a state that votes for the Democratic nominee this Saturday, addressing climate change is a top issue. A January poll conducted by Conservation Voters of South Carolina and Audubon Action Fund found that 64 percent of all South Carolinians think climate change is a serious problem. Only 13 percent of folks surveyed for that poll self-identified as liberal, and only 31 percent said they were Democrats. Its clear that rising temperatures arent just an issue for diehard Democrats anymoreother slices of the political spectrum are starting to get in on the climate action.
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Trump's Environmental Rollbacks Are Deeply Unpopular With Swing Voters (Original Post)
babylonsister
Feb 2020
OP
I thought the cheeseheads of Wisconsin would roll in with the key states above
Submariner
Feb 2020
#2
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)1. Encouraging! Now the Democratic Party needs to do everything it can...
to get these voters to the polls in November.
Submariner
(12,509 posts)2. I thought the cheeseheads of Wisconsin would roll in with the key states above
but it appears they just dont give a crap about their lake and dairy lands. I guess the millions of Foxconn jobs they got are distracting their attention from their local environments.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)3. K&R.The GOP is literally poison to Americans. N/t
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)4. Great, but sucky sad, News?
...when THEY start to feel the heat of the tax cuts for NOT THEM, and all the other awful...
They are too stupid to know what they should want?