Opinion Today
July 5, 2023
America braces for a toxic campaign ... Conservatives go to red states, Democrats to blue as the country grows more polarized ... Can Biden change the economic narrative? ... Parents aren’t as conservative as the right likes to think ... The GOP has a glaring Mormon problem ... Redrawing the House battlefield ... and much more. Not yet a subscriber? To see today's full Opinion Today briefing, take advantage of our 4th of July sale to sign up at a steep discount:
To all who’ve already signed up: Thanks!
Americans sour on the FBI and DOJ amid Trump investigations Alexandra Marquez, NBC News Thirty-seven percent of registered voters surveyed said they have a positive view of the FBI, while 35% said they have a negative view. Views of the agency have soured since October 2018, when 52% of Americans had a positive opinion of the FBI and just 18% had a negative view. Thirty-five percent say they view the DOJ in a positive light and 36% say they view the agency negatively. Poll highlights Democrats' grassroots donor advantage Bridget Bowman, NBC News Democrats are more likely to have donated to a political campaign than Republicans, according to the latest NBC News poll, underscoring Democrats’ fundraising advantage in recent elections. June Verified Voter Omnibus Echelon Insights Survey of N=1,020 voters in the Likely Electorate; Sample from Lucid sample exchange, matched to L2 Voter File; Field Dates: June 26-29, 2023 Why the US ‘does not get to assume that it lasts forever’ Ronald Brownstein, CNN The ideal of national unity celebrated on July Fourth has almost always been overstated, but today’s proliferating and intersecting pressures have reached a height that is forcing experts to contemplate questions few Americans have seriously considered since the Civil War era: can the United States continue to function as a single unified entity, and if so, in what form? The Biden-Trump Rematch Is Already Here Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times One of the most significant developments in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election has emerged largely under the radar. From 2016 to 2022, the number of white people without college degrees — the core of Donald Trump’s support — has fallen by 2.1 million. Over the same period, the number of white people who have graduated from college — an increasingly Democratic constituency — has grown by 13.3 million. Supreme Court ideology continues to lean conservative, new data shows April Rubin, Axios The "Martin-Quinn score," developed by Andrew D. Martin of Washington University in St. Louis and Kevin Quinn of Emory University, measures the ideology of Supreme Court justices dating back to 1937. The affirmative-action debate is primarily about selective colleges Natalie Jackson, National Journal [unlocked] Given that the highly selective institutions are often placed on a pedestal and their graduates wind up in places of power, ensuring fair access is important. But those schools' issues are just not reality for more than 95 percent of the portion of Americans who even make it to higher education, and that shows in polling numbers. For Most College Students, Affirmative Action Was Never Enough Richard Arum (UC Irvine) & Mitchell L. Stevens (Stanford), New York Times The loss of affirmative action is an opportunity to refocus on supporting middle- and lower-tiered colleges.
