@stanleybmanly: “No, it is both his arrogant ineptitude in handling the disease, his failure to understand its threat, the fact that he consistently lied about every aspect of the disease from the moment of its arrival; and the resulting economic upheaval. All of this must undeniably cost the fool votes”
I disagree that this is the case, but I’d be open to data showing that this played a role. Not trying to be difficult, I just haven’t seen anything other than Trump increasing his support among Republicans.
And while we’re speculating, it could be said that the pathetic Biden (and Dem) response to the pandemic hurt them. Biden didn’t have a alternative way of handling the pandemic. His “listen to the science” nonsense is tone-deaf (and if he actually listened to science, he would’ve embraced the GND for starters). Biden could have easily proposed an alternative – monthly payments to everyone, etc. Instead, the Biden/Dem approach smacks of elitist nonsense that ignores the reality that if the “economy” is closed, people lose their ability to live and house themselves.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to give you a hard time about the premise. I just wanted to make sure I understood what you were asserting.