With help from Manchin and Sinema, a Republican revolution from below is driving national policy

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Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country are approving a wave of new voting restrictions on virtually party-line votes that require only a simple majority to pass. The US Supreme Court has likewise decided the key voting rights rulings that helped trigger this surge of state legislation on a party-line, majority-vote basis over the past decade.

But the announcements last week by Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona that they will not support exempting voting rights legislation from the filibuster means Congress can respond to these moves only with a bipartisan supermajority of 60 votes. …

Voting rights is the most dramatic example of how the axis of Republican-controlled state governments, the GOP-appointed majority on the Supreme Court and filibusters mounted by Senate Republicans is limiting Democrats’ ability to set the national agenda, even as they hold unified control of the White House, House and Senate for the first time since 2010. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, CNN

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New York State: Hochul Dominating Primary Field; Viewed Most Favorably by Dems

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Governor Kathy Hochul is – five months before the primary – the clear favorite among New York Democrats, leading potential primary opponents by more than 30 points. She has the support of 46 percent of Democrats, compared to 12 percent for former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, 11 percent for New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and six percent for Rep. Tom Suozzi, with 24 percent unsure or naming another candidate, according to a new Siena College poll of registered New York State voters released today. CONTINUED

Siena College Research Institute

2022 Edelman Trust Barometer: Government and media fuel a vicious cycle of distrust

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The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that business holds onto its position as the most trusted institution, with even greater expectations due to government’s failure to lead during the pandemic. By an average of five-to-one margin, respondents in the 28 countries surveyed want business to play a larger role on climate change, economic inequality, workforce reskilling and addressing racial injustice. All stakeholders want business to fill the void, with nearly 60 percent of consumers buying brands based on their values and beliefs, almost 6 in 10 employees choose a workplace based on shared values and expect their CEO to take a stand on societal issues, and 64 percent of investors looking to back businesses aligned with their values. CONTINUED

Edelman

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Martin Luther King Jr. was right. Racism and opposition to democracy are linked, our research finds.

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… In a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 American adults fielded Dec. 14 to 20, we asked respondents about their views on racism in American society — specifically, whether they agreed that White people enjoy advantages based on skin color or that racial problems were isolated situations, and whether they were angry that racism exists (items from the FIRE scale, which stands for fear, institutionalized racism, and empathy). We also asked about their perceptions of the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and their views on the events of Jan. 6.

The patterns we found were revealing. CONTINUED

Jesse Rhodes, Raymond La Raja, Tatishe Nteta & Alexander Theodoridis (U. of Massachusetts Amherst), Monkey Cage

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Americans see Martin Luther King Jr. as a hero now, but that wasn’t the case during his lifetime

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader and an American hero. Almost every American adult (95%) believes he was an important figure in American history in CBS News polling. But it wasn’t always that way.

The fact that King is now beloved and has a national holiday commemorating his birthday wasn’t something that obviously was going to happen during his lifetime. This shows us that often the fight for civil rights is unpopular at the time, and it only becomes popular retrospectively. CONTINUED

Harry Enten, CNN

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It’s Foolish to Predict the Midterms Until We Know Covid’s Future

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… In sharp contrast to everyone else doom scrolling about the pandemic, political handicappers seem determined to treat 2022 as an ordinary election year. As a result, we are awash in glib forecasts about how the inflation rate, Biden’s approval numbers, or the Democratic stalemate on Capitol Hill will determine the congressional elections. But that’s like ignoring the Depression in making political predictions about 1932. So much depends on whether we will be fighting over remote learning and mask mandates this fall. All the experts bloviating on cable TV have no idea whether the pandemic will be raging or waning as Americans vote. CONTINUED

Walter Shapiro, New Republic

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