‘I Kind of Forgot About That’: Democratic Pollster Shocked by Focus Group’s Response to Question About January 6
In a revealing moment during a focus group session led by one of President Biden’s top pollsters from the 2020 campaign, participants bewildered the group’s leader with their ignorance of one of the Democratic party’s favorite anti-MAGA hobby horses.
The focus group comprised of swing voters was led by Celinda Lake, and its results were reported in an article in the Columbia Journalism Review.
When asked for their thoughts on Trump’s “pending criminal court cases” connected to the Capitol incident of January 6, 2021, the participants displayed a near-complete lack of interest or awareness of the infamous demonstration.
“They go, ‘What court case around January 6?’” Lake recounted. “These were swing voters, and about half of them weren’t sure what we were talking about. And I said, ‘Well, you know, the insurrection and that he was the one that provoked it.’ They go, ‘Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot about that.’”
The article characterizes the participants’ indifference as “amnesia” and dedicates much of its length to pondering why Trump’s purported transgressions are seen as so much less egregious and memorable by the general public than by progressive ideologues.
The January 6 incident has been a significant progressive talking point ever since the events transpired, and many Democrats hope that the incident could be a winning campaign issue for the party as Joe Biden seeks reelection to the presidency.
However, the results of the focus group might indicate that the American people writ large are far less concerned with this event than the fervent Democratic partisans would like them to be — and this indifference could have devastating consequences for the party’s 2024 prospects, should their “1/6 strategy” prove out-of-touch and deliver underwhelming results.
Leave a Comment