Corruption Eruption
Updated: 21 hours ago
There was a fascinating and deeply troubling poll result for MAGOPs on Friday that was so unexpected, given the history of polls -- and given recent basic history, period -- that it holds more substance than might seem.
Moreover, it's from a Fox poll, which makes it much harder for Trump and his party to dismiss. And would be all the more damaging to themselves, considering what the poll says, if they even try. It's that the #1 issue of concern for voters was not the economy or gas prices or healthcare -- rather, their top concern, the public said, was corruption.
Putting aside that "corruption" replaced the economy and Trump's war in Iran as the top voter concern (which is a whole lot to put aside), former DHS security expert Miles Taylor put perspective on the result, noting that corruption being the #1 issue for voters is the first time that's happened in U.S. polling history. Polling analyst Larry Sabato, who writes the highly-regarded "Crystal Ball" newsletter, added his own perspective when the topic was the lead on Stephanie Ruhle's MS NOW show this morning. "The corruption," he said, " -- which finally people have caught up with. It's amazing it's taken this long. Because it's beyond unprecedented. There will never, I hope, be a presidency as corrupt as this one. Presidential family, presidential billionaire buddies."
Further, it's not just the top issue, but with a remarkably huge percentage. The Fox poll says that 88% of registered voters are not only concerned, but "very or extremely concerned" with government corruption. That's edging towards unanimous territory. It would be hard to get 88% of people to say they liked pizza. Or puppies. Let alone extremely liked them, or very much did. And keep in mind, the remaining 12% didn't say they weren't concerned about corruption, just that they weren't "very much or extremely" concerned.
(Additionally, at the very bottom of the Fox poll questionnaire on voter concerns were two issues that Trump and the MAGOP have long been raging about to gin up public outrage -- voter fraud was last at just 52% and border security at 56%.
There are several particular reasons why registered voters saying "corruption" is their top concern is so problematic for Trump and MAGOPs, beyond just the mere number itself and it being the first time ever as the top issue.
One is that, while people tend to think all politics is corrupt, this has to point directly at Trump and MAGOPs – specifically because it’s the #1 issue and not just seen as "politics as usual." Being the #1 issue means that people have moved past their normal expectations about politicians and are tying corruption directly to specific concerns: the tariffs, high prices, the Iran War, cuts to healthcare and more.
Further, what’s so problematic about this poll result for MAGOPs as early voting has already started is that this anger at corruption being the top concern of voters comes after people were already furious at skyrocketing gas, tariffs, Trumps war in Iran, brutality at border control efforts, high consumer prices, and more, all of which had already pushed Trump's approval down to 30%, and pushed Democrats to an 8-point lead in generic polls, and pushed MAGOP officials to recognize the many Deep Red districts and states at such high risk that the party has had to retrench to defend and save candidates who should normally be very safe.
But also, there is one other significant reason why this poll result leaps out -- and it's ignore polling and instead look at basic, recent history and remember the reality of Viktor Orban and Hungary. Orban was the powerful, dictatorial Prime Minister of Hungary for 16 years. The poster child for Trump and MAGOPs on how an authoritarian ruler can take near-total control of his country. So much an icon for the party that he was invited to speak at their CPAC convention. He had a stronghold on his position by changing election laws making it almost impossible for his party to lose. And yet just five months ago, Viktor Orban lost and was kicked out of office. And the one issue that all experts point to for his defeat was, specifically...corruption. The level of corruption around Orban had just got too egregious for Hungarians, to the extent that they were able to overcome the restrictive laws in place that had long ensured Orban and his party's continued rule.
And though when we think of Ukraine today it's about the country's war being attacked by Russia, let's remember how Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first came to office. This is the opening of an article in the Atlantic Council on April 23, 2019 --
"On April 21, television star Volodymyr Zelenskiy crushed incumbent president Petro Poroshenko in the second round of Ukraine’s presidential election. Even though Zelenskiy has never held elected office, voters were so tired of corruption and economic stagnation that they were willing to take a risk.
"Zelenskiy ran an unusual campaign. He made few programmatic promises beyond a general pro-Western course, but cast himself as a person who would clean up corruption." In that second round of voting, Zelenskyy got 73.2%, while the corrupt Poroshenko got 25%.
(Moreover, lest we forget, that election came about because, only five years earlier, Ukraine's then-president Russian puppet Viktor Yanukovych had to flee for his life during the country's "Revolution of Dignity" and escaped to Russia.)
I was going to say, "You can't make this up," but then I realized you don't have to. You only have to turn on the news.
It may take people a while to catch up with corruption, as Larry Sabato notes, but when they do, the result is profound.
And now, here in the U.S. -- with voter outrage already over skyrocketing gas prices, Trump's war of choice in Iran, high consumer prices, the Epstein files, tariffs, cuts to health care, brutal deportations and deaths from cruel immigration policies, and a 30% approval undermining Trump and the MAGOP -- corruption, the Fox Poll found, has pushed the public's anger above all that.
Pro Tip: This is not how you generally want to go into an election two weeks away, especially when early voting has started.
Tying Trump and MAGOP corruption to so many of the issues that are already concerning the public began with Sen. Jon Ossoff, who has made it a core part of his campaign speeches. And seeing how viscerally it resonated with the public, other Democrats began picking up on it. But none of that would have been effective if Sen. Ossoff wasn't addressing what was already there. And what Americans were already experiencing. He and other Democrats just put a public voice to it and made clear that corruption and issues pummeling people not only aren't separate, but in fact fed off one another and are connected.
After a while, accepting a $400 million airplane grift from the UAE, making $2.3 billion in crypto for yourself while public investors were losing an equal amount, having your son-in-law negotiate a $2 billion deal for his company with Saudi Arabia, tearing down the West Wing of the White House with $400 million "donations" from corporations, multi-million deals to companies your son is on the board of, attacking Venezuela to depose their president but then taking over the country's oil industry to be run by U.S. companies, making a deal for a million barrels of diesel fuel with one of our two top enemies, and even just hiring your pool guy in a no-bid contract that ruins the Reflecting Pool which you blame on mythical "vandals", selling gold Trump sneakers, gold Trump mobile phones, Trump bibles and so much more become far too much to sweep under the rug, and people finally get sick from all the excess dirt you've made everyone breathe.
Most especially when the American public realizes it's the cause of most of the hell you've put them through.
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