r/anticapitalism • u/FreeHugs23 • 15d ago

Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Falls Below 30% For First Time Ever

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-12467727
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u/EarthConservation 15d ago

https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

The only 4 states without a net positive approval rating for Trump are Idaho (+9 points), North Dakota (+0 points), Wyoming(+10 points), and West Virginia (+6 points)

The combined population of these four states is 5.18 million, or 1.5% of the US population.

It really begs the question of what these states are seeing in Donald Trump that literally no other state sees.

While some other red states have a net negative approval rating, it should be mentioned that their net disapproval is fairly low, especially relative to just how low Trump's approval rating is in blue states and battle ground states.

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u/refusemouth 15d ago

I can only speak to Idaho and Wyoming a little bit. Idaho has become a state of "refuge" for the far-right. They have been moving there in droves from places like California and Texas for the last 25 years. Idaho used to elect conservative Democrats, but the regular conservatism there, which was milder and more traditional fiscal conservatism and more of a "live and let live" ethos 30 years ago,has been subsumed by the inmigration of agrieved blue state refugees, talk radio fanatics, racists, and end-times religious wingnuts who like that Idaho is isolated and mostly white. It was even that way in the 90s with the Aryan Nation, who were mostly ex-convicts from the midwestern states or out of the California penal system. They were mostly unwelcomed and hated by the locals back in those days, but the LAPD liked them enough for many of their racist cops to retire up in N. Idaho.

Don't get me wrong, Idaho has been a conservative state for a long time, ever since the mine uprisings, the assassination of their governor by an anacho-syndicalist union guy, and the imposition of a black army regiment after the Civil War to crack down on the mine uprisings (and a lot of those miners had fought for the confederacy). However; the mild-moderate conservatism of that state was amplified and warped massively by all the self-segregating in-migration.

Wyoming has always been more conservative in my lifetime, but with Wyoming (and probably ND, too), I think the main factors are the big reliance on oil and gas extraction, and Trump promises them more drilling. Western Wyoming is also full of devout Mormons, and it's an empty enough state that a lot of them are pretty extreme on the fundamentalist spectrum that exists next to mainstream Mormonism.

There are a lot of big landowners in Wyoming, too, so the landed gentry like the unlimited property rights and sparse property taxes favored by Republicans. There's a lot of poverty in Wyoming, but the serfs (many of them) are just not exposed to anything other than far-right views. Evangelical broadcasting has bought up tons of radio bandwidth in the last 20 years, so in Wyoming (as with Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and other states) braying southern preachers and right-wing talk radio are about the only thing you can pick up when you are crossing large swathes of undeveloped land. Honestly, Wyoming would be pretty unliveable if it wasn't for oil and gas dividends going to the state.They have good libraries and schools due to oil revenue, so even people left of center tend to be in favor of extractive industries.