I have a bumper sticker on my car that asks, “Had enough? Vote Republican!” That’s really the critical question on which the presidential election hinges. Have voters had enough of crime, unsafe streets, high inflation, the erosion of their savings accounts, unaffordable gas, groceries and homes; have they had enough of the Democrats’ destruction of their way of life and pursuit of happiness? Put another way, will voters take the rational route of voting for their self-interest and against the ruination of their happiness? Or will they ignore their family’s self-preservation and fall for the rabid pushers of orange man bad Trump Derangement Syndrome?
I ask because there’s a bizarre disconnect rearing its head a few weeks before election day.
The pollsters tell us that Harris and Trump are in a virtual tie in most states. But how can that be true when most polls also show Trump wiping Harris out on all the big issues that voters are concerned about? The people greatly favor him to take care of their problems, so why don’t they score him first as their presidential candidate?
According to a recent Wall Street Journal survey of the seven battleground states, Trump is hugely ahead on the number one concern of Americans, the economy and inflation. The poll found that Trump is ten points ahead on the economy, with 50% of swing-state voters viewing him as the better choice over Harris. Trump’s largest leads are in Georgia where he’s 12 points ahead, and he’s 11 points up in critically important Pennsylvania. In Nevada, only 35% of voters say Harris will lower the high cost of living, while 53% trust Trump. Altogether, Trump is stunningly ahead 50% to 39% over Harris when voters are asked who would be better at reducing inflation.
On who is better able to handle illegal immigration, the second most important voter issue, Trump gets a 16-point lead - 52% for him versus 36% for her. His biggest win on the illegal invasion came in Nevada where he’s up 25 points.
In the same poll, Trump gets big kudos on the international stage. He’s ahead by double digits (50% to 39%) on who will find a resolution to Russia’s war on Ukraine, and that lead is consistent across all seven battleground states: he’s actually 15 points up in Arizona. Voters trust him even more to resolve the Israel/Hamas war, 48% to 33%.
Other polls are very similar. Voters overwhelmingly trust Trump to restore this nation to prosperity and the world to peace; so why isn’t he 10 or 15 points ahead in the popular vote? The fact that the contenders are breathing down each other’s necks this late in the game can be attributed to only one cause: Trump Derangement Syndrome. We know that emotions can overrun rationality, and TDS fueled by eight solid years of outrageous media lies and manipulation is a powerful force. Many people believe the gang of media talking heads in chorus with Democrat candidates’ fiery campaign speeches, who still accuse Trump of inciting “insurrection” on January 6, even though he told MAGA supporters to go peacefully to the capitol. Many believe that police officers were killed, though only an unarmed 35-year-old Air Force vet who served in Iraq and Afghanistan named Ashli Babbitt was murdered in cold blood by a capitol police officer who was acquitted. Many people believed Trump was an undercover Russian spy because the media high foreheads and actual elected representatives in Congress told them so. Many people still believe that a phone call justified a Trump impeachment.
The Democrats and their media co-conspirators are experts at swaying people through emotional myth-making. They’ve proved if they pound it hard enough and repeat it often enough, even the most outlandish claims can become mainstream. Who would believe that Trump is a Nazi, an actual Hitler wannabee who will steal your God-given rights and transform America into a totalitarian state, when that’s exactly what the Democrats are doing?
The never-Trumpers often say they like Trump’s policies, but they can’t stand Trump. He’s so mean sometimes. But the Democrats are cynically serving up the mean life and the mean streets to us all. It will come down to a simple choice, a matter of life priorities. Will a mom and dad or single person, and especially will a single mom who works two jobs to support her kids – will that citizen vote for the Trump changes that will bring higher wages, affordable food on the family table, affordable gas for travel to a good job, money enough for a home, a vacation, safety for children and neighborhoods, less illegal immigration crime and fentanyl, and an administration that supports police, not criminals? Trump, after all, already achieved all these successes in his last turn as POTUS.
In normal times, the survival instinct and the natural human desire for a decent life would overpower the fictional orange man bad fear porn from the left. Rationality and basic self-interest should easily muscle aside the emotional grip of Trump hatred. But if distaste for Trump’s personality is more powerful for moms and dads than voting for their families thriving and the safety of their children, we are lost as a nation. And the media will have proved their emotional tyranny is mightier than even the biological imperative of survival.
Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist whose work has appeared at Townhall.com, American Thinker, The Washington Times, The Federalist, Complete Colorado, Rocky Mountain Voice, and elsewhere. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter (X) @joyoverbeck1