What We Know About the Women Who Vote for Republicans and the Men Who Do Not

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The deepening gender gap in American voting, with men favoring the Republican Party and women favoring the Democrats, is well known, if not well understood. So what explains the presence of millions of men in the Democratic Party and millions of women in the Republican Party? What distinguishes these two constituencies, whose partisanship runs against the grain? CONTINUED

Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times

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Why Do So Many Russians Say They Support the War in Ukraine?

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In the month since Russia invaded Ukraine, public-opinion polls have shown a range of support among Russians for what Vladimir Putin and the country’s state media call a special military operation. …

But what does public support mean in a society with no functioning political opposition, a decimated free press, and a repressive regime in power? …

Even before the war, Russia was not the kind of place where you willy-nilly shared your political beliefs with strangers, let alone with those who called out of the blue. That tendency, forged in the Soviet period, only intensified in recent weeks, with new laws that criminalized “discrediting” the Russian military, spreading “fake news,” and making any mention in the press that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was war. CONTINUED

Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker

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Ipsos Core Political: President Biden’s approval rating stands at 42% this week

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This week’s Ipsos’ Core Political finds most Americans believe the country is off on the wrong track as President Joe Biden’s presidential approval rating stands at 42%.

Three in five Americans (61%) believe the country is off on the wrong track, with Republicans (86%) and independents (66%) most likely to believe this, but 37% of Democrats also agree.

One-quarter (25%) of Americans believe the economy is the most important problem facing the nation today, followed by 11% who believe it is war and foreign conflict, 8% who believe it is the healthcare system, and 8% who believe it is crime or corruption. CONTINUED

Ipsos

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Biden: Crisis of credibility

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It’s been another bad week for the president, as White House staffers, and Biden himself on Monday, tried to clean up a string of troubling gaffes made during his crucial trip to meet with NATO leaders as the Ukraine war continued to rage. …

After months of verbal stumbles, what is most worrisome is that we don’t know whether Biden actually believes what he’s saying when he makes a gaffe, which in and of itself is problematic. Or whether it’s a cynical tactic to move on from what has been one major misstatement after another by this president, the gravest of these this past week. CONTINUED

David Winston (Winston Group), Roll Call

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Zelenskyy inspires widespread confidence from U.S. public as views of Putin hit new low

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Weeks after Russia invaded his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy draws overwhelmingly positive ratings from the American public for his handling of international affairs. Around seven-in-ten Americans (72%) have a lot or some confidence in Zelenskyy, higher than any other international leader asked about in a new Pew Research Center survey.

Russian President Vladimir Putin receives dismal ratings, with only 6% of U.S. adults expressing confidence in him following his decision to invade Ukraine – an all-time low in surveys going back nearly two decades. CONTINUED

Jacob Poushter & Aidan Connaughton, Pew Research Center

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More Republicans have died of COVID-19. Does that mean the polls are off?

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Doctors and demographers recently noticed another tragic example of how polarization shapes America: The pandemic has killed more people in the nation’s Republican enclaves than its Democratic strongholds. They explain the gap by pointing to Republican resistance to vaccines and the GOP’s more cavalier approach to combating the virus in general.

Those findings suggest many more Republicans — tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands — have died of COVID-19 than Democrats, leading some to wonder with some morbidity what the political impact will be. Will Democrats, facing the normal midterm election headwinds plus high inflation, do surprisingly well in 2022 for the simple, sad fact that there are fewer Republicans?

Or, to put it another way: Can we expect this partisan mortality shift to show up in the polling data? CONTINUED

Jim Saksa, Roll Call

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