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It is difficult to understate just how much Americans (at least those who are not card-carrying members of the MAGA cult) do not want either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to win this year’s presidential election.
A new poll illustrates how deeply unhappy voters are about their choices this fall.
A survey conducted by Emerson College Polling shows that a generic Republican would absolutely dominate Biden in swing states while an unnamed Democratic presidential candidate would defeat Trump in a landslide.
To be fair, not just any candidate. The polling question specified that the respective generic competitor would be qualified and younger than Biden or Trump.
In other words, if the Democrats wanted to replace the president at the top of the ticket (and they do), then only Jimmy Carter would not need to apply (although we wouldn’t bet against him). Any other competent Democratic governor, member of Congress, or perhaps city council member would have an edge over Trump.
And Republicans would fare even better with another candidate.
For example, Trump is leading Biden by 7 points in Arizona and North Carolina; 6 points in Georgia; 5 points in Nevada, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania; and 3 points in Michigan.
A younger Republican is projected to win each state by more than 20 points!!!
Conversely, an unspecified younger Democrat would handily defeat Trump in all of these states. They would turn Biden’s losing margins into victories ranging from a 2-point edge (in North Carolina) to double-digit wins (in Georgia and Michigan).
The poll also found that a majority of Americans think that Biden should withdraw. Trump isn’t far behind with 44 percent of voters saying he should drop out.
There is just one key difference between the two men and their respective parties: While Trump has a hammerlock on the GOP and there is no conceivable scenario that would get him to make way for a younger and more qualified candidate, getting Biden to step aside is a real possibility.
If that were to happen, three-quarters of Democrats polled think Vice President Kamala Harris has earned the right to be the party’s nominee.
However, that nomination should not just be handed to her, Democrats believe.
A majority of them say that the best way to select Biden’s replacement would be to hold debates among leading candidates.
By more than a 2-to-1 margin, Democrats believe that this would “energize the Democratic campaign,” while only 21 percent of them think such a selection process would cause chaos.
Through various polls showing that both Biden and Trump are deeply unpopular, Americans have been trying to communicate to the two major parties that they disapprove of their presidential candidates and are yearning for better alternatives.
The main question that needs to be answered in the coming weeks is whether the one party that can still do something about it will act.
