Opinion Today
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Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2023 Yale Project on Climate Change Communication & George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not happening by a ratio of nearly 5 to 1. About half of Americans (48%) think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now,” and nearly as many (44%) say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
Views of State of Moral Values in U.S. at New Low Megan Brenan, Gallup Americans’ already poor ratings of the state of moral values in the U.S. have fallen further to the lowest point in Gallup’s 22-year trend. The 54% of U.S. adults who rate moral values in the country as “poor” marks a four-percentage-point increase since last year and the first time the reading has reached the majority level.
More Americans Disapprove Than Approve of Colleges Considering Race, Ethnicity in Admissions Decisions Pew Research Center Ahead of Supreme Court decision, wide partisan differences in views of colleges’ efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity.
Asian Americans Hold Mixed Views Around Affirmative Action Pew Research Center Most are skeptical of considering race and ethnicity in college admissions. The public is divided on whether sacrificing some rights is needed to fight terrorism AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Half the public feels it is never necessary to sacrifice civil liberties to prevent terrorism, and few consider warrantless government analysis of internet activities and communications an acceptable means for monitoring threats against the United States.
Party and Media Consumption Drive Polarized Attitudes on Gender and Public Education Public Religion Research Institute Americans increasingly believe there are only two genders according to a new study released by Public Religion Research Institute. The survey examines Americans' views on gender identity, their relationships with members of the LGBTQ community, and their feelings about what is appropriate to discuss in public schools regarding gender, sexual orientation, and sex education. LGBTQ+ Adults Do Not Feel Safe and Do Not Think the Democratic Party Is Doing Enough to Protect Their Rights Kirby Phares, Data for Progress Recent polling from Data for Progress shows that LGBTQ+ adults nationally are greatly impacted by anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and rhetoric. Particularly, LGBTQ+ adults feel unheard and unprotected by the Democratic Party, which is the party that the community strongly prefers. What the latest polling says about Trump's classified documents indictment Ben Kamisar, NBC News Majorities of Americans have said they think the accusations against Trump are "serious," but Republican primary voters have been inclined to back him.
The Emerging Anti-MAGA Majority Michael Podhorzer, Weekend Reading Invariably, those prophesying doom unless new Trump-leaning voters are brought over rely on polling results that reflect the generalized disaffection of the moment with all politicians, rather than election results which consistently show that the voters in the key Purple states reject MAGA/Trump when the choice is clear.
Is Gen Z Coming for the GOP? Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic [via opiniontoday.com] As many as 7 million to 9 million more members of the racially and culturally diverse Gen Z could cast ballots in 2024 than did in 2020, while the number of the predominantly white Baby Boomers and older generations voting may decline by a corresponding amount, according to nonpartisan forecasts. As a result, for the first time, Gen Z and Millennials combined could account for as many votes next year as the Baby Boomers and their elders—the groups that have made up a majority of voters for decades. Five Reasons to be Skeptical of the Youth Vote Ruy Teixeira, The Liberal Patriot There’s no free (demographic) lunch. The boring, tedious, difficult task of persuasion is still the key to building electoral majorities. GOP’s booming support for guns is turning off millennial, Gen Z Republicans Juan Perez Jr., Politico About a quarter of young Republicans in one poll said they strongly or somewhat supported an assault weapons ban. Beating Biden Isn't A Priority For Republican Voters In The 2024 Primary (Yet) Geoffrey Skelley, FiveThirtyEight Four years ago, the Democratic presidential primary was dominated by a concept nobody could clearly define but everyone could tell you was important: “electability.” Today, Republicans find themselves in an analogous position to Democrats’ four years ago: facing an open nomination battle to take on an incumbent president they strongly dislike. But they aren’t necessarily repeating Democrats’ 2020 example. Biggest Winners in Debt Ceiling Deal: Vulnerable House Republicans Amy Walter, Cook Political Report with Amy Walter Just after the debt ceiling deal was announced, allies for Biden and McCarthy released ads claiming victory for their side. However, the real winners of a debt deal were vulnerable House Republicans who sit in blue or blue-leaning districts. It is going to be hard enough for many of these incumbents to outrun former President Trump, the likely GOP nominee, in 2024. They also can't afford to be burdened with a Republican-led Congress that is defined by chaos and calamity.
The Major Supreme Court Decisions in 2023 Adam Liptak & Eli Murray, New York Times According to a survey conducted in April by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Texas, the public is often — but hardly always — divided along partisan lines on how the court should rule in significant cases from the term that started in October and is expected to end in late June. Here is a look at those cases.
Why Two Supreme Court Conservatives Just Saved The Voting Rights Act Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, FiveThirtyEight Here are two theories for why Roberts and Kavanaugh delivered such a surprise — and what they mean for how we should think about the conservative majority going forward. The Supreme Court's New Ruling Could Help Democrats Flip The House In 2024 Nathaniel Rakich, FiveThirtyEight In a 5-4 decision that was as surprising as it was consequential, the high court agreed with a lower court’s ruling that the Voting Rights Act requires Alabama to draw a second predominantly Black congressional district. Not only does that mean Democrats will very likely gain a seat in Alabama next year, but the decision will probably also force other states to redraw their congressional maps as well. How Pat Robertson created today’s Christian nationalist GOP Greg Sargent, Washington Post A conversation with historian Rick Perlstein about the world Robertson made.
PODCAST PLAYLIST
SCOTUS Strikes Down Alabama Maps That Limit Black Voter Power The NPR Politics Podcast By a vote of 5-4, a coalition of liberal and conservative justices essentially upheld the court's 1986 decision requiring that in states where voting is racially polarized, the legislature must create the maximum number of majority-Black or near-majority-Black congressional districts, using traditional redistricting criteria. And House Republican hardliners are using procedural fights to disrupt the work of the chamber, lashing out after Speaker McCarthy's debt ceiling deal with the Biden administration.
The Case for Democrats to Stop Playing Defense The Run-Up, New York Times This week, Representative Elissa Slotkin shares what happens when Democrats have a plan, and Megan Hunt, a Nebraska state senator, explains what happens when they don’t.
Chris Christie Kamikaze Campaign Political Gabfest, Slate This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the latest three Republicans battling for the presidential nomination; Oklahoma’s approval of a Catholic public-charter school; and Saudi sportswashing in golf and soccer.
A Guide to the Suddenly Crowded Republican Primary The Daily, New York Times Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, offers a guide to the new crop of GOP presidential candidates and discusses their rationale for running.