Led by Trump, GOP increasingly casts White people as racism’s victims

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Early barbs for President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court selection process have helped crystallize a rising Republican line of attack against Democrats.

“He’s saying, ‘If you’re a White guy, tough luck,’ ” complained Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Cruz was referring to Biden’s vow to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in American history. But that same sense of grievance propels the drive by Republican state and local officials to shield the psyches of White students through constraints on what schools teach about slavery and modern-day discrimination against non-White people.

It finds its starkest expression, characteristically, from the top Republican of all. CONTINUED

John Harwood, CNN

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Joe Biden should be thankful he’s polling better than Boris Johnson

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President Joe Biden has the worst approval rating after one year in office of nearly every elected president, except for former President Donald Trump. But a look across the Atlantic Ocean shows that things can always be worse for Biden.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Conservative Party member, is mired in scandal over parties taking place during Covid lockdowns. His ratings are as low as Richard Nixon’s were when he resigned the US presidency in 1974.

Johnson right now has a popularity rating of about 24% among Britons, across different polling. (For comparison, Biden’s approval rating among US adults is about 41%.) CONTINUED

Harry Enten, CNN

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How would the American public respond to a Russian invasion of Ukraine?

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President Joe Biden has said that Russia would experience “enormous consequences” if it invaded Ukraine, but that he has “no intention” of moving military forces into the country. Opinion polls suggest this might be more or less what the American people want. Across the political spectrum, a strong majority supports tougher sanctions, while only 27 percent of Americans favor going to war with Russia in response to an invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, opinion is evenly split on whether the United States should use troops in this situation, with roughly half the country in favor and half opposed.

Of course, public opinion should not be the sole basis for U.S decisions on how to respond if Russia does invade Ukraine. But public support is often a key ingredient of success in foreign policy crises, and so it behooves U.S. leaders to be attuned to what the public thinks and how its thinking might evolve as the crisis plays out. CONTINUED

Jordan Tama (American U.) & Dina Smeltz (Chicago Council), War On The Rocks

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Trump and allies try to redefine racism by casting White men as victims

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… After years of being branded a racist for his inflammatory comments and actions, Trump and some of his allies are attempting to turn that label back on their critics. In the process, they have wielded their own definition of racism, one that disregards the country’s history of racial exclusion that gives White people a monopoly on power and wealth. To make America more equitable, they argue, everyone must be treated equally — and, therefore, White men must not in any way be disadvantaged.

This diverging definition of racism — often coupled with imagery, symbolism and quotes from the civil rights and other movements — reflects deep and often partisan divisions about what, if anything, needs to be done to produce a more equitable America. CONTINUED

Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post

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Americans support a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics

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The 2022 Winter Olympics opened today in Beijing, with US athletes in attendance but US government officials absent, out of concern about China’s human rights record. This is the first official US diplomatic boycott since the 1984 games. …

Although critics of the US say that the boycott has unnecessarily politicized the games, the American public appears to be on board with the decision. As recent Ipsos polling shows, Americans are more supportive than not of the boycott, including majorities of Republicans and Democrats. CONTINUED

Clifford Young & Catherine Morris, Ipsos

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Religion and Wellbeing in the U.S.: Update

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Gallup’s January Mood of the Nation survey confirmed the finding that Americans are largely satisfied with the way things are going in their personal life, despite their remarkable lack of satisfaction with the way things are going in the U.S. more generally.

At the same time, as my colleague Megan Brenan pointed out in her recent analysis of the data, some Americans are more satisfied than others with their personal life. One not surprising correlate of personal satisfaction is socioeconomic status. Americans with higher incomes and higher education are more personally satisfied than others.

I’m most interested, however, in the data showing that Americans who are religious, as measured by religious service attendance, are more likely to say they are personally satisfied than those who are not religious. CONTINUED

Frank Newport, Gallup

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