President Trump's popularity is still low...pollsters say it will remain low for some time

In 1975, when I was a fifth-grade student at Tropical Elementary in Miami, Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" was anchored by the wonderfully funny Chevy Chase. Back then, the show was still known as NBC's Saturday Night, and the cast (known as The Not Ready For Prime Time Players) included Chase, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Dan Ackroyd, and Garrett Morris.

Anyway, back in '75, SNL writers gave Chase one of the show's earliest catchphrases - "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead...." when they decided to spoof the seemingly endless reports on NBC Nightly News earlier that year about the Spanish dictator's long string of illnesses that culminated in his death on November 20, 1975.

Apparently, the running gag (there would be many Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead updates over the next two seasons) was a comedic swipe aimed at Nightly News anchor John Chancellor, who insisted that the newscast feature more news from around the globe. As a result, Chancellor kept the months-long deathwatch (Franco suffered from various ailments, including Parkinson's Disease and a stroke that sent him to a coma) at the top of the headlines.

Although it's probably more tragic than funny, I can only imagine SNL producer Lorne Michaels and his merry gang of pranksters are thinking up a 2017 sequel to this gag centered on our current President's continued streak of low popularity in the polls.

A month after his Inauguration, President Donald Trump's popularity among most Americans is still at a record low: only 42% of poll respondents approve of Mr. Trump or his policies, according to today's Gallup poll. (The margin of error is +/- 3%)

I've been around a long time, certainly long enough to remember SNL's "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" gag. I've seen more than my fair share of unpopular Presidents, too. I was 11 when Richard Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal. I sadly watched as George H. W. Bush lost his brief surge of popularity after Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm as a result of a sluggish economy and was defeated in the 1992 election by Bill Clinton. I also witnessed a decline in his son's popularity after the misguided invasion of Iraq got America mired in a long and unpopular war...sort of like what had happened to Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 1960s as a result of his policies, both foreign and domestic.

So, yeah. I've seen many Presidents' popularity slide downward during their stays at the White House. Popular appeal is a fickle thing, and even the best of Presidents suffer from low poll numbers when they make mistakes.

But, cripes. I have never seen a President start his term of office with such low poll numbers as Mr. Trump. Per The Independent (a British newspaper), on January 20, 2017, the day he was sworn in as our 45th President, Donald Trump's popularity was at 40%, 44% less than Barack Obama when he was inaugurated in 2009.

I find it sadly amusing whenever I see Mr. Trump assert - as The Independent reports he did on February 6 - that "all negative polls are fake." This is not only a silly notion, it's also childish and petty. (And of course, it leads me to suppose that the contrary, in his opinion, is true.)

I also find it disturbing when Trump supporters claim that they "suffered" for eight years under President Obama without expressing any hatred or committing any violent acts. Why? Because like much of what the Trump Administration is saying about the infamous wall on the Mexican border, the terrorist attacks in Bowling Green and Sweden, and the "non-existent" Trump-Russia connections, it simply ain't so, Joe.

Per NBC News, almost as soon as Obama was declared the winner in the 2008 election, hatred and white supremacists' rage against the Democratic President-elect threatened to eclipse "the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America."

"From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders."

The Associated Press article mentioned by NBC includes a catalog of nastiness: 

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

So, yeah. Don't be too surprised if for the next four years we hear this catchphrase:

President Trump's popularity is still low...pollsters say it will remain in this condition for some time.

Sources:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27738018/ns/us_news-life/t/obama-election-spurs-race-threats-crimes/#.WK705_krKMr

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-least-popular-us-president-elect-40-years-four-decades-new-polls-transition-team-a7531431.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-negative-polls-fake-news-twitter-cnn-abc-nbc-a7564951.html