Public Supports Jackson on SCOTUS

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Americans back the appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court by a more than 2 to 1 margin. A majority also approve of President Joe Biden’s promise to name a Black woman as his first SCOTUS nominee. The Monmouth University Poll finds more than two-thirds of the public feels it is important for the court to reflect the nation’s diversity. About 2 in 10 believe that having a Black woman on the Supreme Court will have a real impact on how cases are decided while 3 in 10 say it will have no impact. CONTINUED

Monmouth University Polling Institute

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How Biden undermined his party’s political future

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Poring through the latest round of polls showing President Biden’s approval regressing back near all-time lows, it’s worth presenting an alternative history, one in which he governed as he campaigned—a pragmatist offering a simple return to normalcy after the tumult of the Trump years. He’d rightly recognize himself as a bridge presidency, looking to reset our politics from the tribalism of the previous four years, without seeking ideological glory or a place in the history books. …

Part of the reason that Democrats rushed to push the most ambitious agenda imaginable is that party leaders expected their time in the majority to be short. It became something of a self-fulfilling prophecy: They rushed to push unpopular progressive legislation that further reduced their chances of holding onto power. They looked at the history of parties in power reliably losing seats in their first midterm election and assumed Biden would be destined to the same fate. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it’s not clear that a more-popular Biden would be on track to lose both the House and Senate. CONTINUED

Josh Kraushaar, National Journal

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Trump-aligned ‘America First’ holdouts don’t follow GOP in backing Ukraine

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They are a distinct minority in their own party and, for that matter, their country: Republican holdouts amid an ever-widening consensus that Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine poses a mortal threat to American interests.

A far right wing of the Republican Party tightly bound to former President Donald Trump is fighting to push the GOP toward the “America First” isolationism that underpinned his 2016 presidential bid.

For the first time since Trump’s rise, his party is pushing back. CONTINUED

Peter Nicholas, Jonathan Allen & Allan Smith, NBC News

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Ron DeSantis follows the Trump playbook ahead of 2024

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… If we’ve learned anything from the last two presidential cycles, it’s that free media is worth a lot in presidential primaries. Trump got a historic amount of free media attention in 2016, and now-President Joe Biden led the pack for free media on the Democratic side during the 2020 primary season.

DeSantis seems like he’s the next major “free media” beneficiary. One of the few non-Ukraine news stories to break through in the last few weeks was the outcry over the new Florida legislation that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.” CONTINUED

Harry Enten, CNN

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Building on anti-mask activism, far-right groups pivot from mandates to midterms

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… Extremism trackers say the past two years of fighting pandemic restrictions have given far-right groups a new generation of recruits and a blueprint for taking the lead in conservative organizing. The midterm season, they warn, brings a heightened risk of political violence, as armed groups build on those gains to push deeper into the mainstream. …

Anti-mandate activists galvanized a broad cross section of political conservatives by melding disparate agendas into one fuzzy call to “fight tyranny.” By now, most of their big demonstrations look like a right-wing soup, featuring Trump and MAGA logos, self-styled militia insignia, Confederate flags, references to the debunked QAnon movement, and Christian nationalist prayers.

Researchers say connections forged early in the pandemic allowed once-fringe groups to take on more visible roles in other kinds of organizing, such as the “Stop the Steal” effort to overturn the 2020 election results, or the campaign to whitewash U.S. history by attacking the teaching of racism and its impact.

The nonstop focus on grievances, researchers say, has created a tinderbox of disenchanted Americans who view themselves as foot soldiers in a struggle against mandates and other perceived attacks on personal liberties. Many right-wing politicians and media personalities are stoking the outrage in pursuit of a “red wave” in November. CONTINUED

Hannah Allam, Washington Post

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Will the war in Ukraine change America’s political landscape?

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The war in Ukraine has unsettled American politics. The degree to which it is changing American politics is the more consequential question for President Biden and the Democrats.

Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression against its sovereign neighbor has refocused the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has become a figure of international acclaim and admiration. Russian President Vladimir Putin has become an international pariah. NATO has been rejuvenated and the United States is once again leading the Western alliance.

How much does that matter to American voters and how much will it matter in the November midterm elections? Today, inflation and other domestic issues remain the main drivers of the upcoming elections. One change the war has brought is that it has frozen the political environment at home and placed some issues — gas prices specifically — into a more-than-purely-domestic context. …

As the country’s leader, Biden could benefit from the broad consensus about Putin’s war. But support for how Biden is handling the war does not yet translate into greater support for Biden himself. CONTINUED

Dan Balz, Washington Post

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