100 days of Trump: What do the polls tell us?

100 days into his first term and President Donald Trump's polling numbers are trailing those of his modern predecessors.

Presidential Job Approval Ratings Following the First 100 Days
    Eisenhower - Trump

Citation: Gerhard Peters. "Presidential Job Approval Ratings Following the First 100 Days." The American Presidency Project. Ed. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California. 1999-2017. Available from the World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/100days_approval.php.

** Rasmussen Report, Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Rasmussen reports that 32 percent strongly approve of the President, while 42 percent strongly disapprove.  That is a 10-percentage point intensity gap. 

This intensity gap is important, because the Democrats are fueling it with grassroots efforts aimed directly at Trump and the GOP.  Meanwhile, pro-Trump forces are often at odds with the Republican Party (as in the case of some Tea Party groups and organizations like Americans for Prosperity).  While AFP works to split the GOP, the anti-Trump forces are united and grow closer together every day in their determination to stop President Trump's reforms. 

On Friday, 99 days into President Trump's first 100 days, a coalition of Democrat Party and Left wing activists groups announced they were forming to stop Trump in New Jersey.  The Observer (April 28, 2017) reported:

"On the 99th day of Trump’s presidency, New Jersey legislators and activists launched what they called a “legislative resistance” to create concrete protections against federal proposals that they say would undermine state values and resident safety.  

The Resistance Coalition is fronted by Sen. Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) and Assembly Speaker Emeritus Sheila Oliver (D-Essex). It includes activist groups like New Jersey Working Families Alliance, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the NJ Amalgamated Transit Union, Blue Wave NJ, and the Sierra Club, among others. They plan to introduce state legislative measures in areas like expanding voting rights, reinstating Obama-era environmental protections lifted by the Trump administration, minimizing “wage theft” they say Trump’s budget cuts would aggravate, and divesting pension payments from companies that help build Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall."

Instead of meeting this challenge with a coalition of their own, groups like AFP are leading the charge to block the Trump agenda in Washington, DC, while its New Jersey affiliate has joined with several Tea Party groups to instigate primaries  against Republican legislators.  The Democrats and far-Left have joined together to kill President Trump's initiatives and are watching bemused as their opponents strangle each other.  Instead of meeting the Left's challenge, AFP and the Tea Party are battling Republicans.  Insane, but true.

Democrat and Left-wing intensity is only going to grow stronger.  A Rasmussen poll out on Friday shows that Democrats are not happy with the level of their party's obstruction of President Trump's policies.  The survey found that just 11% of Likely Democratic Voters believe efforts by the Democrats to oppose Trump during his first 100 days in office were successful.  Twenty-four percent (24%) of Democrats think those efforts were a failure, while most (63%) say they’re somewhere in between.

According to Rasmussen, voters tend to think President Trump has failed to deliver in his first 100 days in office, but Rasmussen claims that is mainly because Democrats are so partisan and unhappy with Trump.   

"But a closer look finds that 57% of Republicans think Trump’s first 100 days have been successful versus 72% of Democrats who regard them as a failure. Eighteen percent (18%) of GOP voters say Trump has failed to date; only nine percent (9%) of Democrats think he has succeeded. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 23% say the president’s first 100 days have been a success, 43% a failure.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of all voters think Trump has proven to be a better president than they expected. Only slightly more (31%) say he’s done worse than they expected. Thirty-nine percent (39%) feel his performance has been about what they thought it would be."

Rasmussen notes that President Trump’s job approval rating in its Daily Presidential Tracking Poll has ranged from a high of 59% in late January to a low of 43% in early April. 

Can President Trump turn this around?  Yes, with a strong and determined focus from his grassroots supporters and some popular policies. Trump's signing of the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order was one of the most popular actions he's taken since being in office.  Actions like these and supporters who are as willing to fight for him as they are against each other will turn the tide.

Stay tuned...

AFP and the Koch Bros go after Trump and Ryan

The social liberals at the Koch network have promised to "spend millions of dollars" to defeat the Republican health care plan to replace ObamaCare. 

The network's leading organizations, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Freedom Partners, announced on Wednesday the creation of a special fund to support House members who vote against the health care bill.

"Some of those who decry 'special interests' and how money runs politics are happy to follow the billionaire Koch Brothers and the organizations they bankroll, like Americans for Prosperity (AFP)," said one New Jersey conservative.

Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips confirmed that the group planned to spend "seven figures" to oppose President Donald Trump and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.  The money will go towards "political ads, direct mail, and other grassroots activity."

Curiously, much of northwest New Jersey is unlikely to see any of this activity because it is particularly targeted against Republicans, so those living in newly elected liberal Democrat Josh Gottheimer's district will get a pass.  It will be a very different story for other New Jersey Republicans.

Writing on the  conservative news website, NewsMax, one conservative activist said:  "The Koch Brothers are fierce enemies of the American people and need to be boycotted by every American," adding that the Koch Brothers are "sick billionaires" and "globalists" whose game is to "fail President Trump and the American people while they claim to be seeking a perfect 100% great bill that does not exist".

AFP opposes President Trump on illegal immigration

Last month Time magazine reported that the "powerful policy and politics network organized by the billionaire Koch brothers made official what many had expected: an opposition to President Trump’s ban on visitors from seven countries with Muslim majorities.  In a statement provided to reporters covering the Kochs’ twice-a-year retreat, top official Brian Hooks said Sunday that the groups under his umbrella would not support Trump’s move."

On February 21, 2017, the Washington Times reported on the attack by Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) on President Trump's attempt to build a wall between Mexico and the United States.  AFP called  Trump's efforts a "tax increase" on business . 

State AFP affiliates have threatened to give pro-Trump Republican members of Congress an "F" rating if they support construction of a border wall.

The Koch Political Network is a special interest lobby group funded by the brothers' extensive holdings in the petroleum industry.  According to figures provided by Koch Industries, they spend between $300 million and $400 million on political activity every election cycle.

The Koch network, officially known as Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, operates groups such as the grassroots focused Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the data-centered i360 and Latino-eyeing Libre Initiative.  Together, they spent roughly $250 million on last year’s elections—while sitting out the White House race.  Over the next two years, they plan to spend as much as $400 million.  

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is run by David H. Koch, a New York City billionaire ($43.3 billion and counting) who is an owner at Koch Industries and whose core business is the refining and distribution of petroleum. 

The Chairman of AFP -- yes, the same David H. Koch -- is a social liberal.  But don't take our word for it.  Here is what Wikipedia had to say about him:

(David) Koch considers himself a social liberal,^[22] supporting women's right to choose,^[23] gay rights, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.^[3][24] He opposes the war on drugs.

Ronald Reagan was a social as well as an economic conservative.  He believed in an America built on Judeo-Christian values and the Western tradition of free speech and free markets.  David Koch is no Reaganite.  In fact, he opposed Ronald Reagan in 1980 -- as the Libertarian Party's candidate for Vice President -- running on a platform  that included the following planks:

"We therefore call for the elimination of all restriction on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for those people who have entered the country illegally."

" We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children. We further support the repeal of all laws restricting voluntary birth control or the right of the woman to make a personal moral choice regarding the termination of pregnancy."

"We defend the rights of individuals to engage in (or abstain from) any religious activities which do not violate the rights of others. In order to defend religious freedom, we advocate a strict separation of church and state."

"The repeal of all laws regarding consensual sexual relations, including prostitution and solicitation, and the cessation of state oppression and harassment of homosexual men and women, that they, at least, be accorded their full rights as individuals".

"We believe that 'children' are human beings and, as such, have the same rights as any other human beings. Any reference in the Platform to the rights of human beings includes children."

"The repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession, or use of drugs, and of all medical prescription requirements for the purchase of vitamins, drugs and similar substances".

"The repeal of all laws interfering with the right to commit suicide as infringements of the ultimate right of an individual to his or her own life".

"We support recognition of the right to political secession. Exercise of this right, like the exercise of all other rights, does not remove legal and moral obligations not to violate the rights of others."

"We call for the withdrawal of all American troops from bases abroad. In particular, we call for the removal of the U.S. Air Force as well as ground troupes from the Korean peninsula."

"We favor immediate independence for all colonial dependencies, such as Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico".

"Government interference in transportation is characterized by monopolistic restriction, corruption, and gross inefficiency. We therefore call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, the Federal Maritime Commission, Conrail and Amtrak. We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system."

And that, as they say, is how David H. Koch rolls...

Dirtbag behavior: Sad to report, it's not only the Left

From our friends at jerseyconservative.org

Last week, we all witnessed some of the more ridiculous antics of the Left, and there has been a lot of commentary about how certain people allowed their emotions to get the better of them.  Madonna made her threats, while others went in for displays of very bad taste.

Jersey Conservative reported on this, and we were quickly reminded that such poor behavior doesn't begin or end with the ideological Left.  Those reminding us were none other than those denizens of the new ideological "Right" -- the Tea Party.  Not everyone in the Tea Party behaves like a 15-year-old who got into his parents' liquor cabinet, but enough do to give the movement a bad name. 

Last week, an  innocent family had an aerial view of their family home placed on a public Facebook page with the words "target acquired" posted underneath and the statement, "got to love drones LOL," posted under that.

The organizer of a draft campaign committee for Gail Phoebus publicly posted those personal details, believing that they belonged to a "political consultant" who works in Sussex County.  But as with so much that comes from these people, the Phoebus campaigner -- who is also a key figure in the Skylands Tea Party of Sussex County -- got it all wrong.

 The home "targeted" by the Phoebus campaigner/ Tea Party activist is in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and it belongs to a perfectly innocent family with young children.  It is not the home of the "political consultant" that Mr. Tea Party seemed intent on injuring.

 After a Sussex County blog reported this, the Phoebus campaign "administrator" appealed to his fellow Tea Partiers.  They responded with threats of violence and personal harm:

The "political consultant" (who is, in fact, a free lance writer) has already been the  "target" of malicious and injurious acts by officials in Andover Township, where Phoebus once served as mayor.   They will have to shoulder some of the responsibility if one of their more emotional "supporters" gets a little too motivated and acts out against the consultant or even an inadvertent "target" of their hate.

If what these people post on their Facebook pages is anything to go by, they are certainly able to back up their anger with something a lot worse than words.

Instead of hate, maybe these folks should try calming down long enough to have a polite, rational, dignified policy discussion.  As the writer Isaac Asimov reminded us, "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

But this keeps going from bad to worse.  Earlier this week another "administrator" of the Phoebus campaign and Tea Partier decided that he wasn't going to be outdone by the Left when it came to posting tasteless images.  He took the image below and explored an even lower range of human discourse.

 

Yes, this Tea Partier photo-shopped the images of several Sussex County Republicans onto vaginas.  The images included a Republican State Senator, a Republican Assemblyman, a Republican candidate for Assembly, a Republican candidate for Freeholder, and a Republican free lance writer from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  The photograph of the last, courtesy of Andover Township, New Jersey.

Mind you, the person photo-shopping Republicans onto vaginas isn't a member of some Left-wing organization protesting Donald Trump.   This person claims to be a Right-winger and member of the Tea Party, who had his photo taken earlier this month with Steve Rogers, the GOP candidate for Governor he says he's supporting.  Everyone involved is a Trump supporter.  This is how crazy some people act when they disagree with someone who agrees with them most of the time, imagine how nuts they'll get when it is someone on the other side?

The people trashed by this Tea Partier are among the most conservative in New Jersey, with perfect voting records on the Second Amendment and the Right-to-Life; top ratings from Americans for Prosperity and the American Conservative Union; who have consistently been there for the conservative movement and the Republican Party.  Heck, the free lance writer once worked for the National Rifle Association as a congressional district Election Volunteer Coordinator. 

Now we know people in the same Tea Party group -- the Skylands Tea Party.  They have names like Tom and Doug and Roseann and Sue.  They are grandparents and business owners and professionals.  How would they explain these images to their grandchildren?  Would they teach their grandchildren how to photo-shop the images of people who have helped them and their community onto a vagina?  Would they explain to them that this is the right way to deal with people when they fail to agree with you 100 percent of the time?  It's 100 percent or your face goes on a vagina! 

In closing, let us leave you with this image, posted at Halloween, by one of your members.  Our advice to you is to chill.  Push the restart button and begin to act like responsible adults.  End the rhetoric of hate.

In July 2008, gas hit $4 a gal, what happened?

Remember the mass starvation that occurred?  The displaced masses?  Thousands died.

No.  That's right, it didn't happen.  And it didn't happen in October of 2012, when the price per gallon again flirted with the $4 mark.  And it won't happen when the price per gallon goes to $2.15 cents, due to the 23 cents per gallon tax increase.

Despite what the petroleum lobby (AFP) and the foul-mouthed followers of the Tea Party tell you, it won't be the end of the world.  In fact, the roads and bridges that had to be closed because there was no money to repair them will now get done, and the world will run a little smoother.

The $8 million dollars in road repaving money promised by the state TTF to Sussex County will now be sent.  That means the county won't have to raise our property taxes next year by $100 to cover that $8 million.  A 105-year-old bridge in Byram will be replaced.  Dozens of other projects in townships and boroughs that would have been paid for by increases in local property taxes will now be funded by the increase in the gas tax.

In New Jersey, the killer tax isn't the user tax on gasoline and diesel, it is property taxes levied by county and local governments and school boards.  New Jersey has the highest property taxes in America and because of it, we have the highest foreclosure rate too.  It is foreclosure that is the breaker of families and the bringer of misery.   

All the energy brought to stop a tax increase was aimed at the wrong tax.  The gas tax hadn't been raised -- not even adjusted for inflation -- for 28 years. 

28 years ago, what did your property tax bill look like?  What is it today?  Did you pay more every year?  Didn't it just go up again this year?

The petroleum lobbyists at Americans for Prosperity ignored the very real property tax/ foreclosure problem and instead focused our attention on the gas tax because that is a tax on the product they sell.  We can at least understand that.

But the Tea Party doesn't have that excuse.  Led by a foul-mouthed national candidate and populated with a legion of rude, foul-mouthed Facebook warriors, the Tea Party is not someone your Mom would let date your little sister.  They are just in it for someone to hate.  It's the anger not the reason that matters.

Some examples:

An X-rated Tea Partier...

After announcing his intent to run as the Tea Party candidate for State Senate against Republican Steve Oroho, Kevin Mazzoti talks Trump to a voter:

 Kevin Mazzoti I'm disappointed in you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Who do you think you are? Are you the one sucking xxxxx off?

An Obama supporting Tea Partier...

A Facebook exchange between Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano and a constituent:

CONSTITUENT:  Don't talk conservative when you brag about voting for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama Mayor.

Franklin Mayor Nick Giordano: Yup cause I vote best candidate at the time not by party.

A two-faced Tea Party "hero"...

As a Freeholder, Gail Phoebus lobbied the Legislature to pass the gas tax to fund the TTF, then lied about it as a candidate, and voted against what she had lobbied for as an Assemblyperson. (Sussex County Freeholder Minutes, November 25, 2014)

A lost Tea Partier on Facebook...

Someone who lives hours outside the district, makes his obligatory threats:

I have been a life long member of the Republican Party.
Now I look forward to repaying you this favor at the ballot box in November.

A flip-flopping Tea Party "king"...

Assemblyman Jay Webber lectured other legislators on the importance of adopting a tax restructuring plan that included an increase in the gas tax and the phase out of the estate tax  -- then turned around and joined Marxists in attacking the plan he told others to support. (Star-Ledger op-ed by Jay Webber, October 14, 2014)

A Tea Partier melts down on Facebook...

At this time, I want you to know that I am going to be spending all my time and energy (outside of working hours) campaigning, writing, and calling everyone I know to VOTE YOU ALL OUT!!! (and it doesn’t matter if you are not in my district). Not one incumbent should be re-elected.

...The burden of the transportation infrastructure costs will now be carried EXCLUSIVELY by the people who travel to work every day.

Yes, by everyone who drives.  It is supposed to be.  It is a user tax -- the fairest form of taxation, according to Ronald Reagan.  Remember him?

...let me remind you that the roads and bridges are used by delivery people, EMT/Rescue personnel, fire trucks, mail delivery vehicles, package delivery, food delivery, telephone and utility (gas/electric) personnel, doctors and nurses who go to work, x-ray and medical technicians, teachers, etc. Now, remember, that people who do not drive utilize these services every day. Are they paying for the transportation costs? NO because they do not drive. The burden of the transportation funding needs to be carried by every citizen of this state.

In other words, New Jersey property taxpayers should subsidize the out-of-state drivers who use our roads.  By-the-way, 30% of those who use our roads are out-of-state drivers.  Wow...