Elections in America: the number that should terrify Donald Trump

OPINION:

One of the most puzzling things about the US election is Donald Trump’s decision to make an overwhelmingly unpopular position one of the centerpieces of his re-election campaign.

To illustrate my point here, I will refer to a Fox News poll that came out today. This one has Joe Biden leading the president 52 percent to 44, but I’m actually more interested in diving into the crossover tables.

This, in particular, struck me as significant.

It aligns with the kind of results we’ve been seeing on this issue throughout the pandemic.

A large majority of Americans believe that limiting the spread of the coronavirus should be a higher priority than reopening the economy.

I emphasize the word “big” there. There is no conceivable poll error serious enough to reverse the numbers you see in that poll. It is not close.

And that’s why I find the rhetoric of the president of the United States so disconcerting in these last days of the campaign. Not only are you married to a deeply unpopular opinion, but you are gifting the obviously popular position to your opponent.

Trump is telling voters that the United States is “turning around” and that the virus is “disappearing,” despite the nation’s record numbers of infections.

He says governors should reopen their economies, even in the worst-hit states.

One of his main attacks on Biden is a warning that the Democrat will re-impose coronavirus lockdowns.

“This election is a choice between a Trump super recovery and a Biden recession. It is a choice between a Trump boom and a Biden lockdown,” is his constant refrain.

The president is holding mass demonstrations with no social distancing and few face masks, and is mocking his opponent for holding much smaller events in accordance with local health guidelines.

He constantly complains about the media coverage of the pandemic, saying that it is “all they talk about” and that the coverage will stop the day after the elections.

“We’re turning around. You know, all they want to talk about is Covid,” Trump told his supporters at a recent rally.

“By the way, on November 4, you won’t hear much about that. ‘Covid, Covid, Covid. Covid! Let’s talk about Covid today.’

“No, we are rounding the turn.”

He tells his followers that if they catch the virus, they will get better, and “99.9 percent” of people are fine anyway.

Trump has been claiming that American healthcare workers are exaggerating the death toll to get more money.

He warned a few weeks ago that Biden will “listen to the scientists” if he’s elected, calling it an insult.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows recently said the United States “is not going to control the pandemic” and that the administration has focused on getting a vaccine instead.

I mean, I could move on. At all times, the president is spreading the message that the virus is not as bad as his critics or the media say, and the economy should be everyone’s top priority.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the United States from the virus is currently 230,000. The country has repeatedly set new records for daily infections over the past week and broke the 100,000 mark for the first time two days ago.

More than 40,000 Americans are hospitalized and there are fears that deaths will rise again in the coming weeks, as deaths tend to lag behind any increase in cases.

While Trump has consistently downplayed the virus and prioritized the economy, Biden has been allowed to tie in to the relatively uncontroversial idea that containing the virus is important, and things like social distancing and masks are important.

“The president of our United States has not only chosen to ignore the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died during his tenure. No, Trump actually decided that it is to his political advantage to diminish the value of those lives already lost and to put in endanger millions more through super-spreading events and outright lies, “Biden said at a rally in Iowa yesterday.

The problem is, I’m not sure any of that is a political advantage for Trump.

The president’s strategy here is … interesting. Which is a polite way of saying it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.