Thursday, January 18, 2018

THE WORLD HATES US, AND I'M SURE THE #MAGA CROWD CONSIDERS THAT A FEATURE, NOT A BUG

It would be nice to think that the administration and its backers would find this troubling:
One year into Donald Trump's presidency, the image of U.S. leadership is weaker worldwide than it was under his two predecessors. Median approval of U.S. leadership across 134 countries and areas stands at a new low of 30%, according to a new Gallup report.

The most recent approval rating, based on Gallup World Poll surveys conducted between March and November last year, is down 18 percentage points from the 48% approval rating in the last year of President Barack Obama's administration, and is four points lower than the previous low of 34% in the last year of President George W. Bush's administration.



But I've watched right-wingers for years, and trust me, they won't be upset. If Barack Obama was well regarded by the world, then obviously being well regarded by the world is a bad thing. That's what they'll tell us. They'll say that the world's goodwill derives from "bowing" and going on "apology tours" on the president's part, and who wants any of that?

They'll also tell us that if other countries don't like us anymore, it's because now they respect and fear us. Never mind the fact that many of these countries are countries we don't want to fear us -- they're our allies:
Out of 134 countries, U.S. leadership approval ratings declined substantially -- by 10 percentage points or more -- in 65 countries that include many longtime U.S. allies and partners.

Portugal, Belgium, Norway and Canada led the declines worldwide, with approval ratings of U.S. leadership dropping 40 points or more in each country.
The #MAGA crowd thinks those countries are all cesspools of socialism, so this will be shrugged off.

A Pew poll last summer had similarly bad numbers, and there was no distress on the right. But I guarantee you that if the numbers were up, we'd never hear the end of it, especially from the president's Twitter feed.

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