How the GOP is making national policy one state at a time

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The political divisions in the United States increasingly aren’t coming from Washington. America has divided starkly into states dominated by Republicans with a shared agenda and states dominated by Democrats with an alternative one. Much of America’s uncivil war, as President Biden has described it, stems from states adopting these divergent policies.

About 45 percent of Americans live in the 25 GOP-dominated states, and about 40 percent in the 16 Democratic ones. In effect, we have two Americas of policy — and only a small fraction of Americans live in a place where one vision or the other isn’t on the march.

But these two Americas are not parallel. Republicans have been more effective at implementing a unified, national agenda through state legislatures and governors. CONTINUED

Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post

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Biden’s defense of democracy, strong abroad, is struggling on his home turf

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Joe Biden has made vindicating democracy the central objective of his presidency. Improbably, he has found more success abroad than at home so far.

The President’s signal achievement has been uniting Western democracies in defense of Ukraine against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian aggression. With coordinated flows of military equipment, economic aid and sanctions, Biden and NATO partners have helped prevent Russia from overrunning its smaller, weaker neighbor.

Yet Biden himself stands to get politically overrun within months by Republican opponents at best indifferent and at worst hostile to preserving America’s own democracy. Facing an electorate upset by inflation, crime and the lingering pandemic, the White House has watched the President’s approval rating fall to levels that almost guarantee the Democratic Party will lose control of one or both houses of Congress in the midterm elections. CONTINUED

John Harwood, CNN

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Democrats are losing ground with the fastest-growing political bloc: Asian Americans

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A lot of attention has been paid to the problems President Joe Biden and other Democrats have with core party constituencies, including young and Hispanic voters. And there’s been plenty of polling to back that up.

Far less attention, though, has been paid to potential declines in Democrats’ standing among groups for which polling is more limited. Getting data on these groups usually requires aggregating polls and looking at trends in real-world elections. I’ve noted, for instance, Biden’s declining approval rating with Black adults.

But what about Asian American voters, who made up only 4% of the electorate in 2020? Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic portion of the electorate, which makes them electorally important. CONTINUED

Harry Enten, CNN

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Voters Democrats need most are getting hit the hardest by inflation

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… From moms in Pennsylvania to Black voters in Georgia, key groups of voters crucial to Democratic victories in 2020 are getting hit the hardest by record levels of inflation, deepening Democrats’ struggle to hold on to congressional control in Washington.

Inflation has been cited as a top concern by voters across the board, but economists and pollsters say it isn’t affecting all Americans in the same way. Those with lower incomes, Blacks and Hispanics, and those under 40, are being hit particularly hard given they tend to spend a greater share of their income on food, fuel and housing — areas that have seen some of the biggest price increases over the past year, surveys and polls show.

For Democrats, those demographic groups are the ones they need the most to turn out in November to hang on to power in Washington, or if nothing else, stem their losses. In 2020, it was Black voters in areas like Atlanta, white working class voters in Pennsylvania and young voters in college towns in Michigan and Wisconsin that helped tip crucial swing states in President Joe Biden’s favor. CONTINUED

Shannon Pettypiece, NBC News

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6 in 10 Americans say Trump should be charged for Jan. 6 riot

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With the first full week of hearings for the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol now complete, nearly 6 in 10 Americans believe former President Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the incident, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.

Six in 10 Americans also believe the committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, according to the poll. …

The poll divides along party lines, with 91% of Democrats thinking Trump should be charged with a crime compared to 19% of Republicans. On whether Trump bears a “great deal” or a “good amount” of responsibility for the attack, 91% of Democrats and 21% of Republicans say he does. CONTINUED

Meredith Deliso, ABC News

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Oil production isn’t the only gas price spike culprit

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As summer travel season begins and gas prices are spiking, Americans are not happy and many are looking to Washington for help.

But consumers hoping for a quick fix may be in for a rude awakening. Bringing gas prices down in 2022 is not simply a matter of “opening the spigot” or drilling for more oil. There’s a long list of problems out there pushing prices up and they seem to defy an easy fix that will bring them back to earth. CONTINUED

Dante Chinni, NBC News

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