Presidential Poll Shows Harambe at 5%

Harambe recently polled at 5% in a presidential preference survey by Public Policy Polling.  If you don’t know, Harambe was a gorilla in the Cincinnati Zoo, and was killed when a 3 year old climbed into his enclosure.

The survey question (#10) was: If the candidates for President were Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump, Independent Harambe, who would you vote for? And the responses were:
Hillary Clinton     48%
Donald Trump     43%
Harambe                 5%
Not Sure                  4%

This year’s candidates have what pollsters call high negatives, the general public is to a larger than normal degree dissatisfied with them. Selecting a dead gorilla is one way of saying that.

This week President Obama got his highest favorability rating so far in his second term, 54%.  His high turns out to be the second highest of all time, at least all time in which these statistics have been kept.  So 54%, instead of being a D-, is actually an A, as good as it gets in America.

The history of US Presidents is they leave us disgruntled. Whatever it was we thought they should have done for us, only at best slightly over half of us think they did it.

I wonder about Jesus. When he died, his poll numbers were terribly low, I’d guess. A crowd offered him up for crucifixion. And a lot of powerful politicians thought he was expendable. He had some high moments, some crowd pleaser days, but even among his close allies (disciples), his popularity had waned a bit.

Even now, Jesus gets high numbers from people who say he did what they wanted – he saved them, helped them get touch downs, healed them. But his numbers among those who didn’t get that job, didn’t get that A, didn’t win, are dwindling in America.

This campaign is charged with angry words and name-calling. When did we transition from opposition to enemies? And how shall we accomplish an orderly and peaceful transfer of power, from one administration to the next, if we despise each other so?

What would happen, if Democrats, instead of deriding Trump, were to focus on his supporters, fellow citizens all,  who deserve our understanding? What would happen if Republicans, instead of hating Hillary and President Obama, worked on respecting the women, Latinos, blacks, and immigrants who are so solidly behind her?

Trump’s supporters cheer when he disparages political correctness (in my childhood beingPC was just good manners). Hillary’s folks are diverse.

Trump’s folks cherish the police. Hillary’s cherish black lives, Latino lives, immigrant lives. Maybe we need to try to do it all.

God knows, we all want to win in November. Real winning, though, will happen when there is a peaceful inauguration in January. Wendell Berry, former American poet Laureate and Kentucky farmer, wrote these words about Enemies.

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,

how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then

is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go

free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not

think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.

God help us all.
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Image: Harambe. Photo by Martin Shields, on The Humane Society of the US blog.