… Watching political ads of many Republican candidates, listening to their speeches, and reading their statements, one might easily conclude that we are all surrounded by existential threats to our country, ourselves, and our way of life. … In fact, our political debate is increasingly dominated by synthetic “issues,” carefully […] Read more »
Two Different Paths to 41%
President Biden and former president Trump don’t have a lot in common. But, they share the inauspicious distinction of having the lowest approval ratings in modern history for a president 500 days into his first term. The fivethirtyeight.com tracker has Biden’s net approval rating at a dismal -13.3, two points […] Read more »
Biden unites country, but it’s not what you think
On Monday, gas prices hit another record high. A new poll showed the country slipping into what might be appropriately called a season of discontent. And the commander in chief forgot to remember D-Day, saving his skin with a last-minute, late-night tweet. Just the kickoff to another week in the […] Read more »
Polls vs. initiative results
Last week, The New York Times’s astute chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, raised serious doubts about polling on background checks for gun purchasers and, by extension, about the efficacy of issue polling generally. The heart of his case: “When voters in four Democratic-leaning states got the opportunity to enact expanded […] Read more »
Why Polling on Gun Control Gets It Wrong
In calling for Republicans to pass gun safety measures like expanded background checks, Democrats point to polls that show most Americans support the idea. They aren’t wrong about the polling. In fact, some polls show that over 90 percent of Americans support expanded checks. Polling, however, does not tell the […] Read more »
Why is trust in government so low? There’s blame to go around.
Pew Research Center’s latest poll confirms what has been known for a long time: Trust in government is low. Really low. “Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time,” the pollsters found, although when asked about […] Read more »