Let’s start with a quick reality check, this is about the results of one poll, so please do digest with a pinch of salt even if you do like what it says.
So the Washington Post reports the details of a poll they ran. Just to be wholly transparent here, this is not one of those self-reporting polls that will be skewed by being the views of readers of a specific type of paper, but is indeed a serious mini-poll. Between last Friday and Sunday they randomly selected a national sample of 527 adults and asked them 5 questions. They conduct such polls on a regular basis to get a sense of what people are thinking. Note the size of the data sample is tiny, so you will need to remember that their sampling error margin here is rather large – at least five percent. In other words, this is probably akin to sticking your finger in the air to determine which way the wind is blowing and how strong the wind feels.
So what exactly did they find?
There are no big surprises here. In reality, anything different would have been a surprise …
Most Americans oppose President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, with a majority saying the move will damage the United States’ global leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Opposition to Trump’s decision outpaces support for it by a roughly 2 to 1 margin, with 59 percent opposing the move and 28 percent in support.
They record the details of those they poll, so this next bit is also really not a surprise at all …
A 67 percent majority of Republicans support Trump’s action, but that drops to 22 percent among political independents and 8 percent of Democrats.
That 67% is less a disconnect with reality and more about tribal loyalty being in play. Political opinions and conclusions expressed by people generally tend not to be reached via analytical thinking, but rather by crowdsourcing via their own political tribe.
A few further thoughts
The numbers perhaps reflect the reality of the bigger picture here.
- About 28% will support anything and everything Trump says or does, no matter how utterly insane, crass, or idiotic it actually is – Pussy grabbing and lying is not a problem for these people.
- About 13% are struggling with the reality of being on the wrong side of history here and so rather than cross the line and join the other tribe, they went with “no opinion”.
- The rest can not only see him for the charlatan that he actually but are also choking on the fumes emanating from the bovine waste that he and his cult followers spew out on a daily basis.
Observing the White House reality show that the Idiot-In-Chief has rolling might potentially be very depressing, but pause and realise that a clear majority have now worked out that the new emperor is butt naked. He is devoid of useful policies, and what he does serve up lacks any real substance for the greater good of the nation.
All is not lost, when it comes to tackling Climate Change, because many city mayors and states will do what is right anyway. Trump will be bypassed. For example this happened yesterday ...
Chinese president Xi Jinping does not make it a habit of meeting with state-level American politicians, but on Tuesday Jinping sat down withCalifornia governor Jerry Brown, to talk about climate change. The meeting between the president and the governor was all over Chinese state-run news, and looked every bit like a meeting between heads of state. Under normal circumstances, Xi would be talking climate change with US president Donald Trump, or at least with US energy secretary Rick Perry—who was at the same energy conference as Brown and Xi, but reportedly did not meet with Xi. But these are not normal circumstances.
.. and he is not alone …
But Brown, along with two other US state governors, 30 mayors, more than 80 university presidents, and over 100 businesses, are taking it a step further: The New York Times reports they’ve formed an as-of-yet unnamed coalition, and are in talks to submit their own climate pledge to the UN,