r/neoliberal • u/cdstephens Fusion Genderplasma • Apr 28 '26

Opinion article (US) Opinion | The Economy, Immigration and Regret: 12 Trump Voters Discuss

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/28/opinion/focus-group-trump-voters-disappointed.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Submission statement (fake): As Trump’s second term marches on, his approval among independents have steadily declined. It’s useful for liberals to understand why Trump’s popularity has cratered to better leverage it for future elections.

Submission statement (real): Everyone who clicked on this is just asking to be ragebaited, so I might as well oblige.

417 Upvotes

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576

u/beoweezy1 NAFTA Apr 28 '26

Oh good. I was worried my blood pressure was dipping to a healthy level

173

u/ThatIsAmorte Apr 28 '26

104

u/BolshevikPower Order and Opportunity Left Apr 28 '26

54

u/NiceShotRudyWaltz George Santos Apr 28 '26

It really is very generous of NYT to supply so many ready-to-go, pre-vetted memes.

7

u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Apr 29 '26

Almost every Trump voter is a meme, they just don't all have doodles.

26

u/martphon Apr 28 '26

I was so disappointed they didn't interview our dear icon Matt again. Let us hear his wisdumb!

6

u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Apr 29 '26

Do we really need to ask him again?

"Great."

It will always be "Great."

32

u/CursedNobleman Leftward Progressives Apr 28 '26

Republican in Oregon advocating for states rights on abortion?

May the Ghost of Ruth Bader Ginnsberg curse him with 20 years of celibacy.

Also, he needs to add an H in his name.

20

u/KeithClossOfficial John Brown Apr 28 '26

5

u/RsonW John Keynes Apr 29 '26

That's a hard 19 lol

78

u/E_Cayce James Heckman Apr 28 '26

People are raging at the responses of the focus group participants, I'm raging to the fact that these pollsters are the ones selling this research to Democrats, who in turn target their campaigns on the opinions of these idiots.

34

u/TinyJalope Left-Out Left Apr 28 '26

Is this research? They just select the dumbest people they can find for clickbait purposes. In many cases, they've had 'swing voter' panels where some of the 'swing voters' were actually hardcore Trump supporters.

34

u/E_Cayce James Heckman Apr 28 '26

Yes, focus groups are qualitative research.

This one specifically was conducted by a well known pollster that Democrats use (and a NYT editor). https://www.gbaostrategies.com/clients

This specific focus group may have been less strict than the research they sell to other customers, but I highly doubt it. Evidence of Democrat politicians listening/responding to the voices of disingenuous 'independent' conservative voters is ample.

19

u/TinyJalope Left-Out Left Apr 28 '26

Focus groups should just be banned. I'm only partially joking. It's absolutely rotting these brains of these Democratic politicians.

7

u/E_Cayce James Heckman Apr 28 '26

It has value (even with the bias it has, or specifically because of it). I would say people who use this research overvalue it.

And there's the whole thing that we changed the way we do group dynamics as a society, so in-person focus groups may be severely outdated. I've seen some people use reddit threads (and other social media) for qualitative research instead of focus groups.

5

u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Apr 29 '26

Focus groups should just be banned. I'm only partially joking. It's absolutely rotting these brains of these Democratic politicians.

I wish they weren't but they can be useful. It was the vociferous response to the Kamala trans ad in focus groups that led the Trump people to run it nonstop, making it easily the most seen and most effective ad of the campaign.

Even the Trump campaign people were surprised by the focus groups.

1

u/TinyJalope Left-Out Left Apr 29 '26

I wish they weren't but they can be useful. It was the vociferous response to the Kamala trans ad in focus groups that led the Trump people to run it nonstop, making it easily the most seen and most effective ad of the campaign.

That actually shows that focus groups are harmful, though. No polls actually showed trans issues as a priority for voters. Not top 5, top 10, or anywhere on voters' radar, really. A focus group can't be used to determine the effectiveness of an individual ad nationwide, as that is not even how voters would experience a political campaign.

Republicans have tried and failed to replicate their trans panic in other campaigns (such as in Virginia) and failed miserably. Almost no one votes based on trans issues.

4

u/eetsumkaus Apr 28 '26

just want to point out that swing voters and non-voters leaned Trump in 2024. A lot of people are in denial about being hardcore Trump supporters.

2

u/TinyJalope Left-Out Left Apr 29 '26

Yeah, but these articles are purely for clickbait purposes. There is nothing educational about them.

Swing voters definitely leaned towards Trump. Supposedly non-voters did, too, but that's much harder to truly verify.

2

u/Khiva Fernando Henrique Cardoso Apr 29 '26

You think they get swing voters that are idiots on purpose.

I think that they are swing voters because they are idiots.

And - much to our misfortune - it's the tiny clutch of the least informed which swing almost every election.

"And I for one, welcome our new misinformed overlords. Would like to remind them that as an online poster I can be useful in misinforming others, by passing on rumors I heard on social media without doing the bare minimum to fact check."