Source: "Whoever the Democratic Candidate Is, Americans Have Already Lost" By Tressie McMillan Cottom - NY Times - 7/6/2024
Polls have found widespread support for the idea of taxing wealth. A poll conducted for The New York Times by the internet research firm SurveyMonkey this summer found that two-thirds of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, supported a 2 percent tax on households worth over $50 million, which is the heart of {Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts}’s plan.
On the campaign trail, Ms. Warren explains the concept of a wealth tax by putting it in familiar terms, likening it to the property taxes that many Americans pay on their homes. For the superrich, she said in South Carolina on Saturday, “how about we include in yours not only your real estate, but also your stock portfolio, the diamonds, the Rembrandt and the yacht?”
The tax proposed by Ms. Warren would apply to households worth over $50 million. She would impose a 2 percent tax on net worth above $50 million, and a 3 percent tax on net worth above $1 billion.
Source: "Democrats’ Plans to Tax Wealth Would Reshape U.S. Economy" By Alan Rappeport and Thomas Kaplan - NY Times - Oct. 1, 2019
A majority of Americans approve of House Democrats’ pursuit of a formal impeachment inquiry, according to a new CBS poll conducted by YouGov.
The poll, which was published on Sunday morning {9/29/19}, found that 55 percent of the survey participants supported an impeachment inquiry. Of those, 35 percent said they strongly support it and 20 percent said they somewhat approve. Forty-five percent disapproved of an inquiry; 31 percent of which said they strongly disapprove and 14 percent said they somewhat disapprove.
The survey polled 2,059 participants on Sept. 26 and 27 {2019} and had a 2.3 percent margin of error, according to CBS and YouGov.
Source: "A New Poll Shows a Majority of Americans Approve of Trump Impeachment Inquiry" by Ali Breland - MotherJones.com - 9/29/19
A growing number of Americans describe climate change as a crisis, and two-thirds say President Trump is doing too little to tackle the problem.
The results, from a poll conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), point to a growing disconnect between Americans worried about the warming planet and Trump administration officials, who have aggressively scaled back Obama-era environmental regulations and relinquished the nation’s role as a global leader in pushing for climate action.
The poll finds that a strong majority of Americans — about 8 in 10 — say that human activity is fueling climate change, and roughly half believe action is urgently needed within the next decade if humanity is to avert its worst effects. Nearly 4 in 10 now say climate change is a “crisis,” up from less than a quarter five years ago.
Though Democrats and independents are more likely to think climate change is caused by human activity, a majority of Republicans — 60 percent — say they, too, believe that
{C}lear majorities say they would prefer that climate initiatives be funded by increasing the taxes on wealthy households and on companies that burn fossil fuels.
The Post-KFF poll finds that about twice as many Americans trust the Democratic Party as trust Republicans to handle climate change, 38 percent to 17 percent.
Source: "Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis, poll shows" By Brady Dennis ,Steven Mufson and Scott Clement The Washington Post - 9/13/19
Sen. John Cornyn announced legislation Wednesday he says would curb mass shootings, after an especially bloody summer in Texas and across the country.
The plan includes none of the steps demanded by gun control activists, such as universal background checks, letting courts confiscate guns from people deemed violent, or more controversial measures aimed at curbing access to assault-style weapons or high capacity ammunition magazines.
One of the Democrats angling to face Cornyn next year as he seeks a fourth term, MJ Hegar {said} His plan, “ignores the most needed solutions to gun violence” such as expanded background checks — an approach supported by roughly 9 in 10 Texans. {emphasis added}
She cited a $1,000 campaign donation from the National Rifle Association’s political action committee on Aug. 19, less than three weeks after the rampages in El Paso and Dayton. And she noted that Cornyn has received $210,190 from the NRA over his Senate career, more than all but five senators.
“How can Senator Cornyn justify introducing a bill on mass violence that doesn’t include expanded background checks when the vast majority of Texans and gun owners believe they are needed?” Hegar said.
“After taking over $210,000 from the gun lobby, refusing to denounce gun violence and white supremacy in the direct aftermath of the El Paso shooting, and taking money from the NRA directly between the El Paso and Midland-Odessa tragedies, it’s no surprise that John Cornyn would introduce a bill that doesn’t include expanding background checks or reducing the amount of weapons of war on our streets," Texas Democratic Party spokesman Abhi Rahman said. "Texans deserve real solutions to solve our gun violence epidemic—not half measures that are meant purely to score political points.”
Source: "Cornyn rolls out gun plan focused on mental health; foes demand broader background checks and ammo limits" By Todd J. Gillman - Dallas Morning News - Oct 23, 2019
Fifty-eight percent of Americans say the conflict with China will be bad for the United States, according to a survey this month for The New York Times by the online research platform SurveyMonkey. That’s up from 53 percent in June, the last time that question was asked. An even larger share of respondents, 63 percent, think Mr. Trump’s trade policies will be bad for the economy, at least in the short term, also up from an earlier survey.
Ashley Connor, who sells beauty products from her home in Nashville, Tenn {. . . }, a 39-year-old mother of two, is about to start a job with UPS. She is also considering working part time at an Amazon warehouse. But while there are plenty of jobs available, few pay a living wage, at least for people like her who lack a college degree, she said. The trade fight, she added, is emblematic of Mr. Trump’s overall approach to the economy.
“He’s taking care of all his rich friends and he’s kind of gutting every program for lower- and middle-class families,” she said. “I just don’t feel like the economy is set up for people like me.”
Two-thirds of independents say the fight with China will be bad for the United States, and support has also softened somewhat among Republicans.
On Wednesday {9/18/19}, the Business Roundtable, an organization of corporate chief executives, said its members’ economic outlook had fallen sharply in the third quarter. More than half of the executives in the group’s survey reported that tariffs had caused a somewhat or very negative impact on their sales. Companies said they expected to hire fewer people and invest less in coming months.
Source: "Trade Conflicts Weigh on Confidence, Posing a Risk to Trump" By Ben Casselman and Ana Swanson - NY Times - 9/19/2019
{Marion Cowen, who oversees benefits for. . . H.A. Cover & Son Lumber, in Thayer, Mo} is intrigued by the idea of being allowed to buy into a government plan, like Medicaid or Medicare, that is being floated by some of the candidates. “We would consider it, yes, we would,” she said, if the option saved money and provided employees with high-quality coverage.
The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that about two thirds of voters supported the idea of allowing people to buy into Medicare. “Some states are looking at a public option,” said David Chase, who leads the national outreach efforts for Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that supported the Affordable Care Act. He said the group is talking to various states about allowing small businesses the option of buying into a government program.
Source: "Employer Health Insurance Is Increasingly Unaffordable, Study Finds" By Reed Abelson - NY Times - Sept. 25, 2019
According to Gallup polling, 43 percent of Americans have a gun in their home.
61 percent of Americans want stricter gun laws, according to Gallup; that includes some gun owners. Support for universal background checks and red-flag laws is substantially higher.
Source: "Bearing F’s From the N.R.A., Some Democrats Are Campaigning Openly on Guns" By Maggie Astor - NY Times - 11/4/18
Yes, even in Texas
Texas Republicans collected half the votes statewide in congressional races this month. But even after Democrats flipped two districts, toppling GOP veterans in Dallas and Houston, Republicans will control 23 of the state’s 36 seats.
It’s the definition of gerrymandering.
Source: " Texas Democrats won 47% of votes in congressional races. Should they have more than 13 of 36 seats?" Todd J. Gillman - Dallas Morning News - 11/23/2018
According to a June poll by Quinnipiac University, 54% of Texans believe abortion should remain legal in most cases in the state in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned. Only 12% of Texans surveyed believed that abortion should be banned in all cases.
Source: "Fed Up With Legislative Moderation, Texas Anti-Abortion Activists Take to the Cities" by STEPHEN YOUNG - Dallas Observer - OCTOBER 14, 2019
Republicans { . . .} medium-term electoral prospects are dim. For one, they remain an overwhelmingly white Christian party in an increasingly diverse society. As a share of the American electorate, white Christians declined from 73 percent in 1992 to 57 percent in 2012 and may be below 50 percent by 2024. Republicans also face a generational challenge: Younger voters are deserting them. In 2018, 18- to 29-year olds voted for Democrats by a more than 2 to 1 margin, and 30-somethings voted nearly 60 percent for Democrats.
The growing diversity of the American electorate is making it harder for the Republican Party to win national majorities. Republicans have won the popular vote in presidential elections just once in the last 30 years.
Much of the Republican base views defeat as catastrophic. White Christians are losing more than an electoral majority; their once-dominant status in American society is eroding. Many rank-and-file Republicans believe that the country they grew up in is being taken away from them. Slogans like “take our country back” and “make America great again” reflect this sense of peril.
Parties representing fearful, declining majorities turn, in desperation, to minority rule. Republican-led states have adopted new laws making it more difficult to register or vote. Republican state and local governments have closed polling places in predominantly African-American neighborhoods, purged voter rolls and created new obstacles to registration and voting.
Source: "Why Republicans Play Dirty" By Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt - NY Times - 9/20/2019
Republicans are touting the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not popular: In the poll, which was conducted after last week’s Senate vote, 46 percent of voters said the Senate "made the wrong decision" in approving the controversial judge, while 40 percent said it was right to elevate him to the high court.
Independent voters are far less supportive of the decision to confirm Kavanaugh: 47 percent say the Senate erred in confirming him, while 34 percent say it made the right decision.
Asked whether it would make them more or less likely to vote for a Senate candidate who supported confirming Kavanaugh, 36 percent of voters say it would make them less likely — more than the 31 percent who would be more likely to vote for a Kavanaugh-supporting Senate candidate. Roughly a third said it would make no difference in their vote (22 percent) or had no opinion (10 percent).
Source: "Poll: Kavanaugh confirmation energizes Democrats more than GOP" By STEVEN SHEPARD - Politico - 10/10/2018
What, then, is the way forward?
Long term, it’s a democracy agenda. Truly participatory elections — with fairly-drawn districts, automatic voter registration and easy access to the ballot — might make Congress more representative of a public that favors progressive solutions across a wide number of issues. Democrats at every level of government should use their power to make those changes a reality. Likewise, strengthening labor and workplace democracy is an indispensable part of building energy for progressive change.
The short term is much harder.
At the very least, everyone on the Democratic campaign trail — and on the debate stage two weeks from now — should be able to say what they intend to do about the Senate. Instead of bickering over health care spending, they should speak frankly and openly with the public about the serious barriers to virtually any kind of major reform.
Arguably the most important divide in the Democratic primary field isn’t by ideology, but between those candidates who understand the obstacles ahead and those who don’t. Despite the example of the last 10 years, the centrist candidates are still running as if persuasion and compromise will win the day.
Only two candidates seem to believe otherwise. Warren, who wants to abolish the legislative filibuster, and Sanders, who wants to mobilize his supporters — and the larger, sympathetic public — against recalcitrant lawmakers.
It will be very difficult to end the filibuster. { . . . }But these, at least, are actual ideas. The moderates, by contrast, have yet to give an answer for what they will do when their agenda hits the same wall the last Democratic president ran into.
Source: "The Presidency Is Not Enough" By Jamelle Bouie - NY Times - 11/4/2019
President Donald Trump talks with Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz as he arrives at El Paso International Airport on Aug. 7, 2019, four days after a mass shooting at a local Walmart that left 22 people dead.
Source: Evan Vucci / AP via Dallas Morning News