Tag: Americans

A new study by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania finds that Facebook use can increase depression and loneliness; Tucker gets insight from Tom Kersting, author of 'Disconnected: How to Reconnect Our Digitally Distracted Kids.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is…

This has subsequently made Brennan one of the more alarmed and strident critics of Donald Trump — a president for whom the idea of anything existing outside partisan politics seems inconceivable — and of his Republican allies in Congress. “But I never witnessed the type of reckless partisan behavior I am now seeing from Nunes and House Republicans.” Brennan has since called Trump a “disgraced demagogue” and declared his July news conference with Vladimir Putin “nothing short of treason.” In August, Trump fired back, stripping Brennan of his security clearance (as Brennan had all but dared him to do) and calling him a “loudmouth, partisan, political hack who cannot be trusted with the secrets of our country!” [Read our profile of John Brennan.] On social media, Sayoc’s awakening — the point where he shifted from posting about cars and women to a manic, rabid form of politics — is clearly identifiable: He was radicalized during Donald Trump’s campaign for president. In “The Polarizers,” his 2017 history of postwar partisanship, the Colgate University political scientist Sam Rosenfeld notes that from the 1930s to the 1970s, the Gallup organization regularly asked Americans whether they would like to see Republicans and Democrats replaced with ideological parties, “one for the Liberals and one for the Conservatives.” At no point did more than a third of Americans like the idea. In the late 1940s, liberal Democratic activists pushed their party to formally embrace the cause, partly as a matter of principle but also as a power move: Backing civil rights would mean marginalizing the party’s Southern conservative barons, who were also at odds with the liberals’ vision for expanding the New Deal welfare state. It’s true that the public’s dissatisfaction with partisan fighting has increased over the course of this stalemate. Over the years, the ratings that partisans have given their own parties have not changed much, but the ratings they give the opposing party have plunged, from around 50 in the Carter years to less than 30 during the Obama administration. Donald Trump, of course, exists to shatter taboos. Instead of solemnly interrupting his midterm campaigning schedule after the Louisville and Pittsburgh shootings, he continued; hours after Sayoc’s arrest, Trump regaled a crowd in Charlotte, N.C., with the same demonology of Democrats that Sayoc embraced. Forty-three years ago, Rusher sought to leverage civil rights and identity politics to sever “businessmen, manufacturers, hard-hats, blue-collar workers and farmers” from the Democratic Party — a project he framed as necessary to make the Republican Party stand for something bigger and more enduring than the sum of its individual politicians.

Approaching a crucial midterm election, 79 percent of Americans said they are concerned or very concerned that the negative tone of national politics will prompt violence. That concern was prominent across the political spectrum, with 92 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of Republicans and 79 percent of those who identify as independent all in agreement. A plurality of Americans — 40 percent — point to President Donald Trump, and another 29 percent blame the media. (In July 2009, after Barack Obama’s election, 35 percent of respondents said civility had gotten worse, according to Marist’s polling data.) When asked by reporters whether he would adopt a more civil tone, Trump said he thought he had been toned down, and “could really tone it up because as you know, the media’s been extremely unfair to me and the Republican Party.” In the poll, when U.S. adults were asked what factors primarily drive these acts of violence, more than a third — 37 percent — said they blame the way Trump conducts himself, and 21 percent pointed to the way the media reports news. An additional 12 percent of Americans said bickering between Democrats and Republicans motivated these violent acts, and another 23 percent of adults said none of these factors were to blame. That sentiment was particularly strong among Republicans (73 percent) and more than half of people who identified as politically independent (53 percent), while more than a quarter of Democrats (28 percent) agreed. Voters are significantly more energized going into this midterm election than they were in 2010, the first major election after Obama took office. A majority of Democrats and Republicans share that enthusiasm going into this election cycle, while politically independent registered voters are slightly less so. At the same time, public disapproval of Trump’s job performance while in office remains steady, with 51 percent of U.S. adults saying they don’t like what he’s doing in the White House.

MINNESOTA (The Borowitz Report)—A vast majority of Americans would feel significantly safer if an enormous caravan consisting of angry white men left the country, a new poll indicates. The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, suggests that the concept of an angry-white-male caravan could be the most wildly popular policy proposal in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections. In an indication of just how much support the proposal has, many Americans said that they would personally contribute gas money to help get the caravan on its way. Despite the popularity of the caravan, however, there was disagreement over what the optimal number of angry white men to depart with it would be, with some suggesting a figure of twenty thousand and others preferring a number as high as forty million. Additionally, the implementation of such a caravan could face major obstacles; the survey indicates that both Mexican and Canadian voters overwhelmingly oppose any influx whatsoever of angry white American males.

Just 20 percent of Americans say they think the country will become less divided over the next few years, and 39 percent think things will get worse. A strong majority of Americans, 77 percent, say they are dissatisfied with the state of politics in the country. Overall, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump, a Republican, is handling his job as president, while 40 percent of Americans approve. How Americans view Trump divides along partisan lines, according to the poll. Fifty-four percent of Democrats and 44 percent of Republicans say they are hearing too little about key issues. Of environmental conditions, 75 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans say they are dissatisfied. Democrats and Republicans also are divided on how important they consider each of those issues to be. Overall, about 6 in 10 Americans said the issue of misconduct was important to them. Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to call sexual misconduct important, 79 percent to 39 percent. Now, there is a 20 percentage point gap: 73 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans say Supreme Court appointments are very important to them.

Legendary NBA player and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tells Ari Melber that “we will get past” the Trump era, by focusing on issues that Americans “hold common”. Abdul-Jabbar also comments on Colin Kaepernick, saying the issues he is calling attention to…

A majority of Americans do not want Brett Kavanaugh to be confirmed, yet the senators who support his confirmation do not represent most Americans. Lawrence tells us the Founding Fathers never designed the Senate to be a truly democratic institution,…

Tucker: Democrats ran campaigns on higher wages, better working conditions and against the banks that crushed their voters with debt. Democratic ideas didn't always work, but their focus was clear. American citizens were their priority. That's no longer true. To…

Rachel Maddow notes that what ultimately explains a host of inexplicable developments in the story of the Donald Trump campaign is the worst case scenario that Trump is compromised by Russia, and points to the unfolding legal case as a…