[See Coda at end]
Way back, in May 2017, when Trump had only been in power for one hundred days and when Trump had “only” made around 600 “false or misleading claims,” Quinnipiac University asked Americans what word first came to mind when they thought about Trump.
The answers were disastrous for the fledgling president.
The top five words used to describe Trump were, in descending order of number of votes: Idiot, incompetent, liar, leader and unqualified.
Sprinkled among the other 20 words used to describe Trump were words such as ignorant, egotistical, stupid, arrogant, bully, racist, bigot and one not fit to be “printed” here. There were also some “neutral” descriptors such as American, president, businessman and — at the bottom of the list — even “good.” (See “word cloud” above.)
In addition, the Quinnipiac poll gave Trump near record-low approval ratings: A 36 percent job approval rating, with 58 percent disapproving of Trump.
Fast forward to a nationwide Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted February 12-16, 2020, in which Americans (by party affiliation) were asked “what word or phrase comes to mind when they think of the top candidates,” including Trump.
Trump, who has now been in power for 3 years, 42 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes and 53 seconds as of this writing and who has made more than 16,000 false or misleading claims is not faring much better with Democrats and Independents.
The top three words or phrases used to describe Trump are:
By Democrats: Jerk, bumbling and that old, familiar “liar.”
By Independents: (There is that word again) liar, racist and “won’t vote for.”
Even Republicans are not that kind: President, bumbling and jerk.
How did the Democratic candidates fare?
It depends, just as with Trump, whether you ask a Democrat, Independent or Republican.
Here is a look at how Americans characterize the remaining, leading Democratic presidential candidates (As of this writing Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar have recently dropped out):
(For a full account, please read here. It should be kept I mind that, “in some cases, a sizable share didn’t know enough about the candidate to give a description.”)
JOE BIDEN:
Democrats see him as Old, Vice President, and good person.
Independents: Old, Vice President, corrupt
Republicans: Old, liar, creepy, stupid
BERNIE SANDERS:
Democrats: Old, good person, smart, Socialist, voting for.
Independents: Old, Socialist, good person.
Republicans: Socialist, old and – there it is – Communist
ELIZABETH WARREN:
Democrats: Smart, strong, voting for.
Independents: Liar, woman, voting for.
Republicans: Liar, crazy, Liberal.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG:
Democrats: Rich, okay, smart, New York, old.
Independents: Rich, liar, arrogant.
Republicans: Rich, liar, buying the election.
If I counted right, the most used attributes are, in descending order: liar, old, rich, smart and inexperienced. Quite a smorgasbord.
Coda:
I have read that the “coda” (in writing) can be the most important part of one’s written work.
Some may consider the last paragraph, above, to be the coda.
Lest the concluding paragraph, above, gives readers the impression that I agree with all the results of the Quinnipiac poll, let me quickly clarify.
While “smart” probably applies to all the candidates, “inexperienced” to some, “rich” is not necessarily bad and “old” is relative, “liar,” in my opinion, resoundingly and factually applies to only one of the candidates.
So, let this be my “coda.”
