Tag: quinnipiac poll
Poll: Vast Majority Of Voters Support Select Committee Probe

Poll: Vast Majority Of Voters Support Select Committee Probe

Anyone who was paying attention to the polling for the past year around the January 6 insurrection generally concluded two things: 1) Very few Americans held the people who stormed the Capitol in high regard; and 2) Many Americans, though not a majority, wanted to leave the violent event in the past.

A Quinnipiac poll in January, for instance, found that 50 percent of Americans thought the storming of the Capitol should never be forgotten, while 44 percent believed too much was being made of the attack and it was time to move on.

In addition, support for arresting the insurrectionists last year dropped considerably among Republicans and independent voters in the months following the event. From January to July 2021, a Daily Kos/Civiqs survey found GOP support for arrests dropped 35 points to 55 percent, while independent voters' favoring arrests dropped 22 points, from 91 percent to 69 percent (still high, but not nearly as high). Not surprisingly, Democrats remained pretty stable, with 97 percent still backing arrests in July.

But new polling taken in the days following the House Select Committee's first hearing suggests the panel's inquiry has grabbed the attention of nearly two-thirds of Americans—including Democrats, independents, and even a sizable slice of Republicans alike.

The survey by the progressive consortium Navigator Research found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) are hearing either "a lot" or "some" about the public hearings, including 70 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of independents, and 59 percent of Republicans. The quality and veracity of that information surely varies, but people across partisan lines are paying attention.

Additionally, by 36 points, Americans overwhelmingly support the work of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Once again, nearly two-thirds (64 percent) support the panel's investigation into "what happened on January 6th at the Capitol and the events leading up to it." That support includes 88 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents and even 40 percent of Republicans. Just 28 percent of Americans oppose the inquiry.

Overall support for the panel has dropped slightly since Navigator’s April survey, mostly due to a seven-point drop in support among Republicans along with independents moving from "not sure" (22 percent in April) to opposing the panel. Independents now saying they are not sure has dropped to 16 percent while opposition to the inquiry among the group has increased by seven points since April.

Now that Americans have had a chance to see some of the panel's work, a net favorability of 36 points with almost no drop-off in support among Democrats and independents is a good start for the public phase of the investigation.

As I noted in April, Democratic base voters crave accountability for the January 6 attack, but it’s also essential to remind swingy Trump-Biden voters that Trump and his GOP apologists are an ongoing threat to democracy. The select committee seems poised to push both of those objectives forward.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Poll: Americans Reject Senate Republican Assault On Judge Jackson

Poll: Americans Reject Senate Republican Assault On Judge Jackson

If you watched any of the Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson and found yourself repulsed by Republicans, you weren't alone. In a Quinnipiac University poll released late last week, 52 percent of Americans disapproved of the way GOP senators were handling the historic confirmation process for Judge Jackson's nomination, while just 27 percent approved of it (21 percent didn't offer an opinion).

In contrast, a 42 percent plurality of Americans approved of the way Democrats handled the process, while 34 percent disapproved (23 percent offered no opinion).

Americans also support confirming Jackson to the high court 51 percent to 30 percent, according to the poll.

As The Washington Post's Aaron Blake pointed out, Republicans fared worse in their handling of Jackson's confirmation than Democrats did in their handling of the contentious hearings for Brett Kavanaugh—who faced a credible sexual assault allegation amid his confirmation.

Republicans received a 25-point net negative rating from the public (27 percent--52 percent) for the way they comported themselves during Jackson's process, while a CNN/SSRS poll in October 2018 found Democrats received a 20-point net negative rating from the public (36 percent--56 percent) during the Kavanaugh confirmation.

The public also opposed confirming Kavanaugh by 51 percent--41 percent. In fact, the place where Kavanaugh really excelled with the public was in the 33 percent who held a "very negative" view of him. For comparison, eight percent of Americans had a very negative view of Neil Gorsuch and seven percent held a very negative view of John Roberts in CNN polls during confirmation for the two eventual justices.

In any case, the main differences between the Jackson and Kavanaugh confirmations is the fact Jackson is substantially more popular and that during consideration of Kavanaugh, neither party fared particularly well in the public's estimation of their handling of the confirmation process. In fact, Republicans also received a 20-point net negative rating from Americans—35 percent--55 percent—for the way they handled Kavanaugh's confirmation, whereas Democrats won plurality support for their handling of Jackson’s confirmation.

But Republicans clearly aren't concerned one bit that a majority of Americans disapprove of the way they conducted themselves during consideration of a nominee who will likely become the Supreme Court's first Black female justice. In fact, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is currently pressuring his caucus to vote against Judge Jackson’s confirmation.

The only audience Republicans ever really care about—particularly in a pre-midterm environment—is the 27 percent who said they approved of how the GOP has handled the Jackson hearings. It's always about juicing the base for Republicans, who continue to be out of step with the majority of Americans on most issues concerning voters. But it's who shows up at the polls that matters, and Republicans will continue to ignore American majorities as long as they don't face any real electoral consequences for their extreme positions.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Every Major Democrat Still Beats Trump In New Poll After Acquittal

Every Major Democrat Still Beats Trump In New Poll After Acquittal

If the election were held today, Donald Trump would lose reelection to every major Democratic presidential candidate, according to a Quinnipiac poll released on Monday.

The poll’s findings come after the Republican-controlled Senate voted to acquit Trump of the two articles of impeachment against him — one for abuse of power and another for obstruction of Congress — suggesting that acquittal did not help Trump’s reelection chances.

In fact, the poll found that 55 percent of American voters believe the Senate acquittal, “does not clear [Trump] of any wrongdoing in the Ukraine matter.”

Quinnipiac conducted head-to-head polls between Trump and six Democratic presidential hopefuls. The responses showed:

  • Former Vice President Joe Biden beating Trump, 50 percent to 43 percent.
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) beating Trump, 51 percent to 43 percent.
  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) beating Trump, 48 percent to 44 percent.
  • South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg beating Trump, 47 percent to 43 percent.
  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) beating Trump, 49 percent to 43 percent.
  • Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg beating Trump, 51 percent to 42 percent.

Trump continues to have a low approval rating, with just 43 percent of Americans saying they are happy with his job performance.

According to Quinnipiac, that is lower than former President Barack Obama’s approval rating at this same point in his presidency, when 45 percent approved of the job he was doing. It’s also lower than that of former President George W. Bush, who had a 48 percent approval rating at this point in his presidency.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Trump Is Toxic But Americans Are Not

Trump Is Toxic But Americans Are Not

Donald Trump is a toxin in the American political bloodstream, and the resulting symptoms are not only ugly and unpleasant but also dangerous. Among the signs are expressions of racial prejudice, religious bigotry, sexism, and violent hostility for those deemed to be unacceptably different. It’s a debilitating malady.

Trump was an abnormal presidential candidate, indulging in overt antipathy for foreigners, crude slurs against women, juvenile insults of political rivals, and nonstop lies on matters big and small. But he won the election, giving rise to fears that he represented the true character of the American public.

On a daily basis, Trump does things that would have grievously damaged previous presidents.It’s impossible to imagine George W. Bush telling nonwhite members of Congress to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Barack Obama would never have called a poor, white, rural county a “disgusting” place “where no human being would want to live.”

Both Bush and Obama were fully capable of rising to the occasion when Americans were in pain. On the rare occasions when Trump is obligated to voice conciliatory, unifying sentiments, as he did after the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, his words carry no conviction or credibility.

Most Americans expect the worst from him. So they could not have been surprised that he couldn’t make a condolence call on those cities without trashing local Democratic leaders.

There are two striking facts about his presidency. The first is that he did not adapt to meet longstanding expectations of how the highest elected official in the land should behave. If anything, winning the 2016 election inflamed his worst instincts.

The second, more encouraging, discovery is that Trump’s abnormality still looks conspicuously abnormal. Americans have not defined presidential deviancy down. They have not jettisoned their beliefs about what a president should do and not do. Even people who approve of his overall performance in office have no fondness for many of his habits.

Americans who feel distress, shame, and anger at Trump’s policies may be tempted to assume that all the people who voted for him share his worst traits. But they don’t. Voting is usually a binary choice between unsatisfactory options, and factors such as ideology, religion, and party heavily sway decisions.

Going into the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton had the second-highest unfavorable rating of any major party nominee since 1956 — worse than that of Barry Goldwater, who, in 1964, got a puny 39 percent of the vote in a two-person race. Plenty of Americans voted against Clinton, settling for Trump only as the lesser of two evils.

Their reservations help explain his persistently low approval rating. Since February 2017, Gallup has found, at least half of Americans have disapproved of how he has done his job, with spikes as high as 60 percent. His approval figure has sunk as low as 35 percent and has never risen above 46 percent. When Barack Obama left office, by contrast, 59 percent of Americans had a positive view of his performance, with 37 percent disapproving.

While regularly making use of racist code, Trump claims to be “the least racist person anywhere in the world.” Most people are not fooled. A July Quinnipiac Poll found that fully 51 percent of voters say he is indeed racist, with 45 percent disagreeing.

The public is not blind to his many serious defects of character and personality. An August YouGov/Economist survey found that a majority of people do not believe he is honest, intelligent, inspiring, patriotic, strong, or sincere. Just 18 percent deny that he is hypocritical, and 9 percent say he is not arrogant.

Only 21 percent regard him as a good role model for children, according to a March Quinnipiac poll. Just 20 percent think he is more honest than most previous occupants of the Oval Office.

“Trumpian” can mean many different things, but in almost any company, it is not a term of praise. Republican pollster Gene Ulm told The Atlantic, “You have a lot of people (who) like everything he’s doing but would never have him (over) for dinner.”

With his brazen appeal to dark impulses, Trump has encouraged hateful elements in American society. At the same time, he has awakened people of goodwill to cherish and defend the values that he threatens.

Trumpism has infected the American polity like a foul pathogen. But it has also stimulated a powerful immune response that just may leave us stronger in the end.

 

Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman. Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13. To find out more about Steve Chapman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.