Fear That Good News for the President is Bad News for the Democrats
The stock market is roaring. Unemployment is at a record low. The economy added 266,000 new jobs in November. Though these things are objectively good, of course, they are less good if you are a Democrat and you don’t want the current president to get credit for anything that might help him get re-elected.
Take Mr. Trump’s announcement in October that U.S. Special Forces had killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State movement. That could be considered positive news for the president, some Democratic voters conceded in interviews, except that Mr. Trump presented the news in such an unpleasant way, they said, embellishing his narrative with unsubstantiated details about Mr. al-Baghdadi’s last moments.
“Trump had to make a 50-minute speech about how wonderful he is,” said Jane Worm, 77, of Dubuque County, Iowa.
In Durham, N.H., Barbara Feldman, 68, said she was worried that Mr. Trump would capitalize on the incident to bolster his popularity.
“I do worry about his base, and his support, unless the young people get out and vote,” she said.
Fear of … Politics
For the last three years, therapists have reported an increase in patients who say that almost anything having to do with politics is making them uneasy, angry and hopeless, a condition that Jennifer C. Panning, a psychologist in Evanston, Ill., has christened “Trump anxiety disorder.”
In a survey of 3,617 American adults released in November, the American Psychological Association found that 56 percent said that the 2020 election was a “significant stressor” — as opposed to 52 percent before the 2016 election.
“It depends on what side of the aisle you’re on, but for many people there’s the question, ‘What is going on with this country that someone can get away with so much?’” said Dr. Mary Alvord, a therapist in Maryland who teaches psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine.