Trump’s card: smug progressives

Are we back from the brink? Hillary Clinton surged ahead by 14 points in the first national polling in the wake of Donald Trump’s “locker room” audio, and leading election forecaster FiveThirtyEight.com put her odds of winning at over 80 percent (as of the CN&R’s deadline).

Those are pretty comforting numbers for the cross-section of Americans—Democrats, independents, even Republicans—alarmed by the prospect of a Trump presidency.

Sigh of relief?

Not hardly. The race is far from over. If the tweetmaster general has taught us anything, it’s that he’s never down for the count.

This latest revelation should have proven a bridge too far, guarantee of a landslide, but it probably won’t.

His true believers aren’t shaken. A friend posted on Facebook this meme: “We don’t care what you said 11 years ago! We need a real president now!” She also shared an article headlined, “Why I’m Still a Trump Supporter, Despite His Comments on Women.” She’s among many.

Just how many is unclear. His surrogates have remained stubbornly optimistic in the face of adverse poll numbers, with campaign manager Kellyanne Conway telling the media about “undercover Trump voters” who she says keep their support secret, even from pollsters.

That’s not so far-fetched. Backing Trump is not PC. (Similarly, among certain progressives, supporting Clinton is not PC, either.) It takes a certain degree of self-assurance to risk feeling judged negatively, even by a stranger on the phone, so perhaps Conway has a point.

Alone, in private, with his/her ballot, a voter can express prejudices with no one else the wiser.

Remember, California did pass Proposition 8—an initiative to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry—by a comfortable margin. California also passed Prop. 187—an initiative to deny health, education and social services to undocumented immigrants—and re-elected unpopular Republican Gov. Pete Wilson based on his advocacy for that legislation, both by lopsided margins.

Hard-right pivots can happen in our left-leaning state.

If you oppose Trump, ensure he’s denied the presidency: Vote. Don’t let complacency breed regret.