The Daily Beast trolls Republicans by publishing a poll showing Republicans have a more favorable view of Kim Jong-un than they have of Nancy Pelosi:

The poll of roughly 1,000 adults aged 18 and over was conducted June 14-15, shortly after President Trump’s historic summit with the North Korea dictator. According to the results, 19 percent of Republicans indicated they had a favorable view of Kim with 68 percent saying they had an unfavorable view (12 percent of voters overall had a favorable view of Kim, compared to 75 percent who viewed him unfavorably). That compared slightly better than the perception of Pelosi, who had a 17 percent favorable, 72 percent unfavorable rating among self-identified Republicans.

Pelosi, nevertheless, was only the second-most disliked figure on Capitol Hill. Her overall 29 percent favorable, 47 percent unfavorable rating was slightly better than the numbers for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). McConnell had an overall favorability rating of 20 percent with 43 percent viewing him unfavorable. (Self-identified Democrats, for what it’s worth, had a significantly more favorable opinion of McConnell than of Kim Jong Un.)

I have two reactions to this.

On one hand, I’m unsurprised and appalled, for obvious reasons. Kim is not the first murderous dictator who has risen in the estimation of Republicans after being praised by Trump, but the fact that this is a recurring phenomenon is disappointing in a very familiar sort of way.

On the other hand, I’m annoyed at the way the poll, and the story reporting it, both troll Republicans in various ways. First of all, there are other results unfavorable to Democrats that aren’t even mentioned. Examining the poll itself, one finds that 8% of Democrats approve of Kim Jong-un while only 10% of Democrats approve of Donald Trump. That is is well within the poll’s plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage point margin of error — as is the central point trumpeted by the story (19% of Republicans see Kim favorably while 17% see Pelosi favorably). Isn’t it worth mentioning that Democrats hate Trump so much that, as a group, they see him nearly as unfavorably as a man running the most twisted totalitarian society on the planet?

Then there are the questions not asked. Given that “President Trump was viewed favorably by 83 percent of Republicans, and just 10 percent of Democrats,” I’m sure we could find a leftist thug viewed more favorably by Democrats than that. They didn’t ask Democrats what they think of, say, Nicolas Maduro? If they wanted to troll Democrats the way they want to troll Republicans, maybe they could ask about Democrat approval of Xi Jinping while calling his economic policies socialistic.

Finally, Nancy Pelosi is an almost singular figure in terms of her lack of redeeming qualities. (I say “almost” singular because Hillary Clinton is similar. As is Donald Trump, if you put policy aside.)

Then we have this comment from the Daily Beast story:

Trump’s apparent stranglehold on Republican voters has also led them to buy into the notion that the mainstream media is out to get him in their coverage of the administration.

Presented with the statement “The mainstream media is biased against President Donald Trump,” 87 percent of Republicans surveyed agreed with 67 percent strongly agreeing. Only 20 percent of Democrats in the survey agreed with that sentiment.

I can’t stand Donald Trump and yet I agree with that statement. Does that mean Donald Trump has a “stranglehold” on me and my views? Um no. This is absurd.

So yeah. If you favor Kim Jong-un more than you favor Nancy Pelosi, your moral compass is way off. If you favor Kim Jong-un more than you favor Donald Trump, your moral compass is way off. There are certainly wild-eyed partisans holding one of these absurd beliefs on each side. Let’s stop pretending it’s a one-way street.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]