Even Republicans Overwhelmingly Oppose Using Government Shutdown As Political Leverage

Donald Trump got more bad polling news this week, including one result that could make him think twice about his threat to shut down the government again: even Republicans oppose using government shutdowns as political leverage, and by a wide margin.

One of the attention-grabbing items in the latest Quinnipiac University poll is the fact that voters now trust Democrats more than Trump on the issue of border security, an issue on which Republicans usually enjoy the advantage.

The rest of the poll echoes the bad news that Trump has been receiving lately on things like the border wall, his approval since the beginning of the shutdown, and his share of the blame for the Trump shutdown.

Most of those results break down along party lines, with responses from independents leaning heavily toward the Democratic side, and Republicans near-unanimously siding with Trump. But there were a few notable exceptions.

The poll asked “In general, do you think it is appropriate for government shut downs to be used as leverage in policy disagreements, or do you think it is inappropriate?”

Americans opposed using shutdowns as political leverage by a crushing 79-16 percent margin. But unlike many of the other questions, Republicans agreed that using shutdowns as political leverage is inappropriate by a 59-30 margin.

The other result that showed significant, if not overwhelming, defection from the Trump position was his ban on transgender people serving in the military.

While Americans on the whole support allowing trans people to serve by a margin of 70-22, 40 percent of Republicans support it, versus 50 percent who oppose. That’s a huge swing since the last time Quinnipiac polled the question, and Republicans opposed allowing trans people to serve by 60-32.

Trump has thus far not been swayed by the deadly poll numbers he’s racking up with all Americans, even independents. But when such large chunks of your own voters are sending messages like this, it might be time to listen.

[photo via Getty Images]

from Mediaite http://bit.ly/2S0V2qs