Dear MoveOn member,
Last week, in the middle of Donald Trump's mind-bogglingly incompetent
handling of the coronavirus pandemic, his approval rating hit 48%—his
highest ever.^1
This wasn't some bogus fly-by-night poll. It was the Washington Post-ABC
News poll, one of only six polls rated A+ in the country, according to
data expert Nate Silver.^2 And it's part of a trend: Trump's polling
averages have been shooting up across the board for weeks.^3
It's infuriating but true: The coronavirus crisis is helping Trump
politically.
Voters are rallying to their leader, while Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders
have almost completely disappeared from the news. But there's another
problem: Voters don't know how badly Trump has botched the response to
this crisis. They don't realize that his mistakes are the reason we have
the most COVID-19 cases in the world.
We need to face facts: If things keep going this way, Trump is going to
get re-elected. So we've decided to take emergency action. We're aiming to
launch and sustain a massive digital ad campaign NOW AND THROUGH ELECTION
SEASON, focused on voters who approve of Trump, to educate them about his
part in creating this public health disaster.
Can you chip in $12 a month to help launch and sustain this critical ad
campaign?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly to help stop Trump's rise in the polls and
defeat him in November.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Trump's poll numbers have risen steadily ever since the crisis broke, and
his approval rating is now almost as high as Barack Obama's was at the
same point in his presidency.^4
How on Earth is that possible?! The reason is that in times of crisis,
Americans want to rally around their president.
Remember George W. Bush and 9/11? Bush was warned about the attack in
advance and did nothing. Then, he responded by attacking Iraq, a country
that had nothing to do with it. It was a complete disaster, but people
were scared. Bush took advantage and was re-elected.
That exact scenario could happen again.
There's another problem, though: People simply don't know how badly Trump
has screwed this up. A majority of voters don't know that there still
aren't enough tests for everyone with symptoms.^5 Only a small number of
voters know that Trump shut down the office of pandemic response or that
he was warned during the presidential transition even before he was
inaugurated that a pandemic like this one was only a matter of time.^6
And Trump, a master media manipulator, is running daily press conferences
filled with deceptions, self-congratulations, and misinformation—but these
press conferences are being aired live, giving him direct access to make
his sales pitch of lies and boasts to the American public (and then brag
about the ratings, which are his real goal).
We need to make these facts common knowledge, and we're aiming to put up
the kind of ad campaign it'll take to do that.
Now, some top Democrats are saying that Trump is so incompetent that all
we have to do is stand aside and let him fall apart on his own.^7
But we guarantee you: That will not work. It didn't work in 2016. It
didn't work against Bush in 2004. And it won't work now.
The corporate media has proven time after time that it's totally incapable
of holding Trump accountable. If our side doesn't aggressively prosecute
the case, Trump will get re-elected. And worse yet, the pandemic response
won't improve, and hundreds of thousands of people could die.
America can't survive four more years of this president. Which is why
we're asking:
Can you chip in $12 a month to help launch and sustain the targeted ad
campaign that is needed to make sure that voters know how badly Trump's
botching the crisis response, stop his rise in the polls, and defeat him
in November?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in monthly.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Chris, Amy, Allison, Isbah, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "The bad news for Trump, amid his coronavirus poll bump," The
Washington Post, March 27, 2020
[link removed]
2. "FiveThirtyEight's Pollster Ratings," FiveThirtyEight, November 5, 2019
[link removed]
3. "President Trump Job Approval," RealClearPolitics, accessed April 2,
2020
[link removed]
4. "How popular/unpopular is Donald Trump?" FiveThirtyEight, accessed
April 2, 2020
[link removed]
5. "Top health official Fauci: People in US not easily getting coronavirus
testing 'is a failing,'" The Hill, March 12, 2020
[link removed]
6. "Before Trump's inauguration, a warning: 'The worst influenza pandemic
since 1918,'" Politico, March 16, 2020
[link removed]
7. "Ads attacking Trump's coronavirus response could backfire," Quartz,
March 28, 2020
[link removed]
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day
by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage,
defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's
pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must
never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than
ever. Will you stand with us?
[ [link removed] ]Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.
[ [link removed] ]No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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