The Supreme Court’s ‘Dead Hand’

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The Supreme Court has set itself on a collision course with the forces of change in an inexorably diversifying America.

The six Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices have been nominated and confirmed by GOP presidents and senators representing the voters least exposed, and often most hostile, to the demographic and cultural changes remaking 21st-century American life. Now the GOP Court majority is moving at an accelerating pace to impose that coalition’s preferences on issues such as abortion, voting rights, and affirmative action.

On all of these fronts, and others, the Republican justices are siding with what America has been—a mostly white, Christian, and heavily rural nation—over the urbanized, racially and religiously diverse country America is becoming. …

In this backward-facing crusade, the majority may be risking the kind of political explosion that rocked the Court at two pivotal earlier moments in American history, the 1850s and 1930s. In each of those decades, a Supreme Court that also was nominated and confirmed primarily by a political coalition reflecting an earlier majority similarly positioned itself as a bulwark against the preferences of the emerging America. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic

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CNN Poll: Economy and education could shape how Americans vote in 2022

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Voters begin the midterm year primarily focused on economic issues, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS in January and February. The survey also showed that Democrats are suffering an early deficit in enthusiasm about voting, a dynamic that could be compounded by voters’ concerns over the economy.

A majority of voters (59%) said the economy will be extremely important to their congressional vote this year, 55% said the same of inflation, and 49% on taxes. Concern about the economy hasn’t been this widespread in any midterm-year CNN Poll dating back to 2002 and only reached similar levels in the summer of 2010 (56%). CONTINUED

Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN

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Is 2022 the Year of the Angry K-12 Parent?

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Veteran GOP strategist Liesl Hickey has dubbed 2022 the year of the angry K-12 parent. “They are mad,” says Hickey, co-founder of the center-right group N2 America, “and they want to hold someone accountable.” …

Recent polling suggests that Americans are much less worried about kids getting sick at school and more concerned that kids are falling behind without consistent in-person schooling. A January NBC poll found a significant majority (65 percent) of adults were more concerned about children not going to school in person than were concerned about in-person school potentially “resulting in more spreading of COVID.” Among adults most likely to have school-aged kids (those between the ages of 35-49), a whopping 70 percent were most worried about kids not being in school. CONTINUED

Amy Walter, Cook Political Report with Amy Walter

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CNN Poll: A growing number of Americans don’t think today’s elections reflect the will of the people

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An increasing majority of Americans lack confidence that elections in America today reflected the will of the people, and about half think it likely that a future election in the United States will be overturned for partisan reasons, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

In the new poll, 56% of respondents said they have little or no confidence that American elections reflect the will of the people, up from 52% who felt that way in September and 40% in January 2021. Almost three-quarters of Republicans were now skeptical that elections are representative (74%), as were 59% of independents, and only a third of Democrats (32%). CONTINUED

Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

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Biden’s approval rating continues to erode, including with vital parts of his base

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… On Thursday, CNN released a new poll conducted by SSRS that showed Biden’s approval sinking to 41 percent. That helped push his average approval rating lower as well, as calculated by FiveThirtyEight. Biden’s approval rating is now worse than any modern president at the same point according to FiveThirtyEight, save one: Donald Trump. And even in contrast to Trump, Biden is only running about even.

What must be particularly galling about the new CNN poll to Biden’s team is that CNN’s polls had been consistently outperforming the average in recent months. CONTINUED

Philip Bump, Washington Post

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CNN Poll: Most Biden detractors say he’s done nothing they like since becoming president

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Nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Joe Biden is handling his presidency, with most of that group saying there’s literally nothing Biden has done since taking office that they approve of. The finding, from a CNN Poll conducted by SSRS in January and February, highlights the entrenched politics driving the nation at the start of the midterm year, with little agreement across party lines on priorities for the government or how to handle the coronavirus pandemic.

The President’s ratings have fallen across the board, the survey found. Just 41% approved of the way he’s handling his job while 58% disapproved, a significant drop from his approval numbers in CNN polling last year. CONTINUED

Jennifer Agiesta & Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN

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