Trump's 35 percent doctrine

Donald Trump is president for just 35 percent of America. This is an incredibly audacious experiment in radioactive governance.

Donald Trump waves to supporters.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump and the Republican Party are conducting a bold experiment in American democracy: ruling for and implementing policy on behalf of just 35 percent of the voting public.

On issue after issue, Republicans are pursuing (although thanks to their world-historic ineptitude, not actually yet achieving) policy goals that are not just divisive in a split-down-the-middle sense, but that are unambiguously opposed by towering majorities of American citizens. For the first time in our history, we have a governing party that seems to believe it can win re-election by implementing policies that are about as popular as parking tickets, and which will be greeted with all of the enthusiasm that we reserve for a bout of Norovirus.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.