I hope you had a chance to read the post from last night laying out the Republicans' plans for America if they win the midterms. It's pretty scary... and that's before the rising tide of fascist Know Nothings like Marjorie Traitor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert etc-- all guaranteed reelection by friendly gerrymanders-- make it even worse!
The media is certainly painting a picture of a coming midterm wipeout for team Blue, largely based on historical trends, but mostly paying no attention to the GOP turn towards fascism and no attention to the impact of Trump, who remains extremely unpopular and motivating for voters.
Republicans have convinced themselves the issues are with them this time and cite how well they did in Virginia. And Glenn Youngkin did win-- 1,663,158 (50.6%) to 1,599,470 (48.6%)-- against an extremely uncompelling candidate-- while keeping Trump at arm's length and hiding his own extremist views. Now that those extremist views are starting to come on public display, Youngkin's approval rating has quickly sunk. After just one month, there is already buyers' remorse-- although some Republicans are touting Youngkin as presidential timber. "The Republican," reported MSNBC appears to be out of step with a majority of voters on key issues, including school lesson plans and mask requirements... The right touted his November election victory as a vehement denunciation of progressive politics. But the data show a different picture. About 43 percent of voters disapprove of Youngkin’s job performance so far, compared to just 41 percent who approve and 16 percent of voters who are unsure, according to a poll released Monday by Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Civic Leadership."
The data look even bleaker when you tease out voters’ views on Youngkin’s priorities.
Roughly 57 percent percent of Virginia voters oppose his promised public school ban on teaching about racial inequality-- which he’s classified as critical race theory-- while only 35 percent of Virginians support the ban, according to the poll. What's more, 63 percent of voters said they support teaching how racism continues to impact society, compared to 33 percent who oppose it.
That ought to be devastating news for Youngkin, who leaned heavily into white angst over discussions about racism in the run-up to election day.
The poll also found broad support for allowing health experts to drive the discussion about whether to enforce mask mandates in schools. Some 56 percent of voters think health data should determine mask requirements, with only 41 percent saying the decision should be left to parents.
That data comes roughly a week after Youngkin signed a law effectively banning mask mandates in Virginia public schools.
And that isn't just true of Virginia. Yesterday, reporting for CBS News, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto wrote that national polling shows "Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea of banning books about history or race. One reason for that: a big majority also say teaching about the history of race in America makes students understand what others went through. Large majorities-- more than eight in 10-- don't think books should be banned from schools for discussing race and criticizing U.S. history, for depicting slavery in the past or more broadly for political ideas they disagree with. We see wide agreement across party lines, and between White and Black Americans on this. Parents feel the same as the wider public... And Americans are okay with the broader notion of public schools teaching about ideas and historical events that might make some students uncomfortable. By contrast, the idea that teaching about race makes students feel guilty about past generations or makes them less racially tolerant today gets little traction with most Americans."
If you read that GOP list of promises from last night that I linked to up top, you saw the Republicans' twisted and distorted view of race in America. Although some hard core Republican partisans agree with that, most Americans do not. Here's Rick Scott's NRSC bullshit on race issues (basically denying there's a problem):
And here's how Americans see it-- including polling that shows big majorities also believe racism continues to be a problem today; only Republican partisans fail to understand that. If only they watched less Fox News!
