Issues like the economy, COVID and science denial are shaped by partisan predispositions, says Matthew Lebo, chair of Western University’s department of political science. For a Republican, “voting against the Republican would be to deny part of their identity,” so they rationalize being OK with everything else.
The coming months are scary to think about, Lebo says. Should Trump lose, “he’s still going to be in charge for two-and-a-half months. Especially with COVID raging worse than ever, it could be the worst two-and-a-half months of his presidency, and his worst behaviour of his presidency. There’s nothing at all reining him in anymore.”
A fair number of Trump’s supporters probably do know the virus is dangerous, Skocpol says. But Trump is a showman, “a seller of hopes and dreams. And what he was doing was tapping into the yearning of a lot of his core followers to get on with it — to get out of the house. To stop cowering before this virus. To get the economy going again.”Article content continued
Because of science-deniers in the WH.