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Month: November 2022

The convergence of gun culture and bigotry

Published by digby on November 23, 2022

It all came together in Colorado last weekend

Back on May 24, an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Even in a country where mass shootings are as common as they are in the United States, that one was a shocker. Just as shocking was the government response to the shooting.

Even as the local government stonewalled the press, virtually the entire top level of state leadership, led by Gov. Greg Abbott, descended on Uvalde to hold a town meeting just days after the event. They praised the “first responders” and angrily denounced anyone who suggested that maybe it was a bad idea to allow disturbed 18-year-olds to acquire semiautomatic weapons.

Months later, there are only a few more answers for the families of those slain children and the teachers who tried to protect them. There was a massive cover-up that is only now coming to light. But 60% of the citizens of Uvalde voted for Greg Abbott anyway. His Democratic rival, Beto O’Rourke, ran on a gun safety platform and apparently the good people of that community couldn’t abide that, even as 19 children from their own community were lying in their graves. That is the power of America’s gun culture.

I will confess that vote shook me. I would have thought that at least in that town the reality of unfettered gun access would have hit home.

The Gun Violence Archive has recorded at least at least 601 mass shootings through mid-November of this year. Of those shootings, 20 involved five or more fatalities. Many were carried out either by people with some twisted agenda of their own, like the Uvalde killer, or were motivated by some personal grudge. But there has been a spate of mass shootings in recent years that appear to be the direct result of right-wing propaganda as well, particularly the onslaught of online hate, where what was once fringe is now mainstream.

The accused shooter is 22 years old and, according to a recent court filing, identifies as nonbinary. This individual already had run-ins with police after a bomb threat that led to a standoff at their family home in El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs. There is video of that incident showing the alleged shooter rampaging through the house in combat gear, daring the police to come and get them. But those charges were dropped and the case was sealed, for unclear reasons. But as Tim Miller of The Bulwark reports, we can certainly make a reasonable guess. Even though 80% of Colorado citizens backed the “red flag” signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, 37 of the 64 counties in the state have decided to ignore it, calling themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.” El Paso County is one of them.

In other words, local officials could have prevented this accused killer from legally purchasing guns if they had followed the state’s duly enacted laws instead of acting like defiant criminals themselves. They won’t even try to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of someone who has demonstrated an eagerness for violent confrontation with police. It’s inexplicable.

Then there is the target of this attack, a gay bar and restaurant called Club Q that was hosting a drag show the night before the Transgender Day of Remembrance — a day honoring the many trans people killed in horrific hate crimes. Drag performances have been around for generations, but over the past couple of years, as the right-wing media has become obsessed transgender people, conservative politicians both locally and nationally have seized on them as a way to gin up some old-fashioned gay-bashing. They have apparently managed to convince millions of Americans that LGBTQ people are somehow “grooming” children into becoming trans, after one of their rising-star propagandists decided this was an excellent way to get the base excited. Drag shows are suddenly enemy No. 1. 

So we have seen Republican Senate candidates shouting incoherently about pronouns and others babbling about “grooming,” which might seem like  bizarre fringe behavior if it weren’t for the violence and bullying being inflicted on many highly vulnerable LGBTQ people in our families and communities.

Here’s an example of the rhetoric being bandied about, this time from the woman who seems to be pulling the strings behind the incoming speaker of the House of Representatives:

Just days after the mass shooting, Fox News celebrity Tucker Carlson featured a discussion that basically threatened more violence:

In case you think this is just coming from the likes of Greene or Carlson, consider new GOP dreamboat Ron DeSantis, who has banned classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida schools and took on one of the state’s largest employers when it (belatedly) stood up for its LGBTQ employees and patrons. DeSantis is as mainstream as it gets in the modern-day GOP. For that matter, 37 of the 50 Republican senators voted against protecting same sex marriage just this week.

And let’s not forget the gun-toting congresswoman from Colorado Springs, who perfectly encapsulates the convergence of nihilistic gun culture and loathing for LGBTQ people.

After the murders, Boebert tweeted that “the violence must end and end quickly,” but I think we can be pretty sure she isn’t talking about enforcing the gun laws in her state or disavowing the disgusting homophobia and anti-trans crusade that she has pushed ever since she entered politics.

No one seems to have told these people that this anti-trans crusade backfired on them badly in the midterm elections earlier this month. On the list of issues that motivated people to vote, gender-affirming care for trans youth or trans participation in sports was literally in last place. The right is getting no tangible benefits from all this, except the thrill that people they hate are under threat.

Normal people in this country agree with Richard Fierro, the heroic military veteran with four tours of combat under his belt who stopped the gunman in Club Q and saved countless lives. He was attending the drag show with his family and friends and told the New York Times, “These kids want to live that way, want to have a good time, have at it. I’m happy about it because that is what I fought for, so they can do whatever the hell they want.”

The Republicans claim that they are the keepers and protectors of “traditional” American values, and in a certain sense they are. There is a long tradition of violent, hateful bigotry in this country. But Richard Fierro represents the values that decent Americans are proud to uphold. 

Salon

They don’t like to be reminded that they are monsters

Published by digby on November 23, 2022

From a local Colorado Springs reporter:

They have a mass killing in their town and two days later they don’t want to hear about it. That’s the community that voted for Lauren Boebert. That’s the Christian right. That’s the MAGA cult.

I can guarantee you that if it had been a young Muslim man shooting up a country bar, they would be all over it.

All you need to know

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 23, 2022

He is Twitter. Twitter is him.

“Twitter is still a company, sure, with employees and creditors and advertisers, millions of users, producing a breathtaking range of externalities,” explains John Herrman at New York Magazine. “But, also, it’s just a guy.“

Hermann continues:

Twitter, like all social networks, has inspired all sorts of theories about how it really works and why. It’s a public-feeling venue run as a commercial firm; as a company, it routinely borrowed civic and legal language to legitimize what were, when you really get down to it, a bunch of rules and structures that the company could change if it really wanted to, and that it often did.

It was in public-company Twitter’s interest to give the impression that no one person was really in charge, and to insist that this commercially run, advertising-driven social network — variously referred to as a “town square” or a “digital commons” — was, in fact, a collection of carefully considered systems and policies, which, through slow deliberation, could be tweaked or repaired to produce different results.

Nah! Now Twitter is just a guy. This guy. 🔽🔽🔽

So you don’t have to click through:

I’m trying to imagine a support group for narcissists. There are support groups for victims of narcissists. But why would a narcissist even seek help? Wouldn’t each member of such a group insist it be about himself? How would that work?

We are seeing it now in real time.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 23, 2022

Black Friday comes two days early

‘Murica!

“No more than 10 people have died” read an early report late Tuesday on a mass shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia, a suburb of Norfolk. No motive is known at this time. The shooting rampage took place at a Walmart on Battlefield Blvd. (You read that right.)

Updated reports this morning say “at least six” died including the gunman, reportedly a Walmart employee who took his own life. So, no more than 10 still holds. A local hospital is treating four (or five) victims whose injuries have not been reported.

It’s how patriotic Americans these days celebrate Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. With lite mass murder. Just as our sainted Founders intended.

The drafters of the Second Amendment are rolling in their graves over not having apended “thoughts and prayers” to it.

The late “Christmas tree lady” lived nearby in the historic William Jennings Bryan House. She kept Christmas trees in almost every room. Each had a theme. And theme ornaments. Given the opportunity, she would expound for hours how she came by behind Each And Every One.

This morning, I can’t help wondering if she might have found room for one more tree with ornaments memorializing America’s most celebrated mass killings. It’s a holiday tradition.

I’m sure our hearts go out to the wounded and to the victims’ families. But Americans’ bottomless capacity to tolerate this shit — because Freedom! — has exhausted my capacity to maintain my cool.

So what’s going on with “Team Normal” this week?

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

Oh Dear God …

Alleged grown-up Mike Pompeo, right wing foreign policy specialist.

Pompeo, a possible 2024 GOP presidential candidate, told Semafor at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas that “making sure we don’t teach our kids crap in schools” is something he would run on.

“I get asked, ‘Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?’” said Pompeo. “The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten. It’s not a close call. If you ask, ‘Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?’ It would be the teachers’ unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.”

“If our kids don’t grow up understanding America is an exceptional nation, we’re done,” he added. “If they think it’s an oppressor class and an oppressed class, if they think the 1619 Project, and we were founded on a racist idea — if those are the things people entered the seventh grade deeply embedded in their understanding of America, it’s difficult to understand how Xi Jinping’s claim that America is in decline won’t prove true.”

FFS. Honestly, there are no words for how incredibly deranged and absurd this is. Why not just go full -on with Mao’s “cultural revolution” and call it a day. (His wife is a perfect Madam Mao, by the way…)

Weingarten understands very well what this is all about and it’s pathetic:

“He needs to fund his campaign,” she said. “He doesn’t have a base so he is trying to get millions from the anti-union, anti-public-education billionaires like Betsy DeVos.”

He’s also angling for the far right wingnut groups like “Moms for Liberty.”

If you think the recent mild distancing from Trump means a repudiation of the authoritarian white nationalist agenda, think again. Team Normal is going to try to out-Trump Trump.

The will wreak havoc

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

It’s what they do

Paul Krugman has some shrill words about the Republicans for which he has my thanks:

Normally, one would expect a political party that suffered severe electoral disappointment — falling far short of typical midterm gains despite high inflation and consumer discontent — to moderate its positions, to seek compromise in order to achieve at least some of its policy goals.

But the modern G.O.P., in case you haven’t noticed, isn’t a normal political party. It barely has policy goals, other than an almost reflexive desire to cut taxes on the rich and deny aid to those in need. It certainly doesn’t have policy ideas.

Republicans spent much of the election talking about inflation. But in a news conference just after securing a narrow majority in the House, top Republicans declared that their top priority would be … investigating the Biden family.

So the G.O.P. won’t help govern America. It will, in fact, almost surely do what it can to undermine governance. And Democrats, in turn, need to do whatever they can both to thwart political sabotage and to make the would-be saboteurs pay a price.

Before I get to ways Democrats might do that, let’s talk about two reasons Republicans are likely to be even more destructive and irresponsible than they might have been if the red wave they confidently expected had come to pass.

First, the very narrowness of the Republican majority in the House means that the next speaker, probably Kevin McCarthy, will need support from nearly every member of his caucus — which will mean empowering extremists and election deniers. As one former G.O.P. congressman put it, McCarthy may hold the title, but Marjorie Taylor Greene may well be speaker in practice.

You might object by pointing out that Nancy Pelosi had only a narrow majority these past two years and nonetheless managed to unite moderates and progressives behind her policy agenda. But McCarthy is no Pelosi — and progressive Democrats are infinitely more serious and interested in getting things done than MAGA Republicans.

Second, the economic environment, which was a headwind for Democrats this year, will probably (although obviously not certainly) begin to look better heading into 2024 — prompting frantic efforts by Republicans to make things worse.

Specifically, inflation seems set to fall substantially, especially because a dramatic leveling off in market rental rates hasn’t yet filtered through to official price measures. And while a recession is possible next year, it will probably be mild if it happens — and over well before the next elections.

So for the next two years we can expect Republican leaders, such as they are, to wreak as much havoc as they can, both to appease their party’s most extreme elements and to undermine what might otherwise look like successful governance by the Biden administration.

Unfortunately, Republicans will in fact have major opportunities to wreak havoc — unless Democrats use the next few weeks, during which they will retain control of Congress, to forestall them. Two issues in particular stand out: the debt limit and aid to Ukraine.

For historical reasons, U.S. law in effect requires that Congress vote on the budget twice. First, it authorizes spending and sets tax rates; then, if that legislation leads to budget deficits, it must separately vote to authorize borrowing to cover those deficits.

It’s not clear why this ever made sense. In the current environment, it allows politicians who don’t have the votes to change policy through normal procedure to hold the economy for ransom, as Republicans did during the Obama years, or simply blow it up out of sheer spite — because failing to raise the debt limit would probably cause a global financial crisis. Does anyone expect the incoming G.O.P. House to behave responsibly?

As for Ukraine, while the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and remarkably successful in turning back Russian invasion, they need a continuing inflow of Western aid, both military and economic, to continue the fight against their much larger neighbor. But it’s all too likely that a Republican Party that takes many of its cues from Tucker Carlson will try to block such aid.

The good news is that Democrats can, as The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent puts it, “crazyproof” policy during the lame duck session, raising the debt limit high enough that it won’t be a problem and locking in sufficient aid for Ukraine to get through the many months of war that surely lie ahead. And Democrats would be, well, crazy not to do these things as soon as possible.

Beyond that, Democrats can and should hammer Republicans for their extremism, for focusing on disruption and fake scandals rather than trying to improve Americans’ lives.

Savvy political pundits will no doubt mock such efforts. But these will be the same pundits who insisted that inflation would dominate the midterms and sneered at President Biden for talking about the threat Republican extremists posed to democracy — which turned out to be an important election issue after all.

It’s a given that Republicans will behave badly over the next two years. But Democrats can both limit the damage and try to make bad actors pay a political price.

Sadly, the word is that Sinemanchin don’t want to extend the debt ceiling in the lame duck. Evidently, they would prefer to let the lunatic party crash the world economy. They could certainly lock in aid for Ukraine and they should do it. Shadow Speaker Greene has big plans on that subject in the next congress. They need to be prepared to fight.

We call this a democracy

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

I don’t really think this fits the definition

As this map makes clear, large portions of the country are quite evenly divided, appearing in various shades of purple, although a number of strongly Democratic or Republican areas are visible too.

Our presidential elections are going to be decided by a few thousands votes in a handful of swing states. Again. Ron Brownstein’s analysis here is invaluable if you want to understand why Democrats should not rest on their laurals or assume “the fever has broken.” It hasn’t, but more importantly it probably wouldn’t be decisive even if it did:

The results of this month’s election point toward a 2024 presidential contest that will likely be decided by a tiny sliver of voters in a rapidly shrinking list of swing states realistically within reach for either party.

With only a few exceptions, this year’s results showed each side further consolidating its hold over the states that already lean in its direction. And in 2024 that will likely leave control of the White House in the hands of a very small number of states that are themselves divided almost exactly in half between the parties – a list that looks even smaller after this month’s outcomes.

Stanley Greenberg, a veteran Democratic pollster, speaks for many strategists in both parties when he points to the enormous “continuity among the elections” since Donald Trump emerged as a national figure. “We’ve now gone through 2016, ’18, ‘20 and ‘22 – and all looked pretty much alike,” he says. “And it has locked in the coalitions.”

Looking at the Electoral College, this year’s results offered more reason for optimism to Democrats than Republicans. Five states decided the last presidential race by flipping from Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020 – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democrats have already won six of the eight Senate and governor races decided across them this month and could notch a seventh victory if Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeats Herschel Walker in a Georgia run-off in December.

“Republicans can’t be happy that in the states they have to win, we won – and by not just a little bit,” says Simon Rosenberg, founder and president of NDN, a Democratic research and advocacy group, who was the most visible skeptic in either party of the “red wave” theory this year. “It’s very encouraging as we go into 2024 because we were able to stare them down and beat them … [even] with inflation being so high. And it wasn’t just their bad candidates – its far more than that.”

Still, the results also showed Republicans tightening their grip on Ohio, Iowa and Florida: though Democrats won all three in both of Barack Obama’s presidential victories, each now appears securely in the GOP’s column for 2024 (and likely beyond). And the perennial liberal hope of putting a “blue Texas” in play clearly looks like it will be deferred again after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s double-digit victory against an energetic and well-funded opponent (former Rep. Beto O’Rourke) squashed the limited momentum Democrats had built there in the 2018 and 2020 elections. Republicans once again beat Democrats for all of Texas’ statewide offices, continuing a shutout that stretches back to the 1990s.

These offsetting and hardening partisan strengths could, once again, provide the power to decide the White House winner to a few hundred thousand voters in a very few closely balanced states. That’s a windfall for the owners of television stations who will be deluged with television advertising in states such as Nevada, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona. But it’s also another reason for the prodigious stress in our fraught modern politics. Each side in an intensely polarized nation of 330 million recognizes that the overall direction of national policy now pivots on the choices of a miniscule number of people living in the tiny patches of contested political ground – white-collar suburbs of Atlanta and Phoenix, working-class Latino neighborhoods in and around Las Vegas and the mid-sized communities of the so-called BOW counties in Wisconsin.

[…]

How big a map does this leave the two sides contesting in the 2024 presidential race? No GOP presidential candidate would entirely concede Michigan or Pennsylvania, but the magnitude of the 2022 Democratic wins there – extending the party’s recovery in 2018 and 2020 – show how difficult it will be for any Republican nominee to take them in 2024, especially if he or she supports further restrictions on legal abortion. (Under Trump, says Roe, Michigan has become “a wasteland” for Republicans.) The results even more emphatically extinguished the prospect of Democrats in two years seriously bidding for Ohio, Florida or Iowa.

That could leave as few as four genuine toss-ups in 2024: Wisconsin in the industrial Midwest, and Nevada, Georgia and Arizona across the Sunbelt. That list could shift slightly depending on circumstances and the candidates. Rosenberg, for instance, believes Democrats should now target North Carolina with the same intensive organizing efforts they mounted in the key battlegrounds this year. And Republicans may continue to push for Minnesota and New Hampshire. But all will be difficult to dislodge from their current allegiance.

A race with just Wisconsin, Nevada, Georgia and Arizona as true battlegrounds would begin with Democrats favored in states holding 260 Electoral College votes (including Washington, DC) and Republicans in states with 235. Democrats would need to win just one of Wisconsin, Arizona or Georgia to reach an Electoral College majority – yet that last piece could prove very challenging for them to secure. After 2022, the list of genuinely competitive presidential states may be shrinking, but, if anything, that could increase the tension as the nation remains poised on the knife’s edge between two deeply entrenched, but increasingly antithetical, political coalitions.

The threat that these MAGA extremists could seize power under these conditions is acute and that’s not even taking their election shenanigans into consideration. It’s going to take tremendous effort, every single election until this dynamic shifts. And that could take a ful generation.

Take a vacation. Enjoy your hobbies, your family and your other interests. But don’t withdraw from politics out of sheer exhaustion, as tempting as that might be. Every single vote counts and we all have to stay engaged and on top of it.

There is a lot more analysis at the like which I urge you to read if you want more details about this phenomenon.

They throw the book at some reality stars

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

Others get off scott free

Some people are held criminally liable for the lies they tell to banks and the IRS. Others not so much:

The reality-TV couple Todd and Julie Chrisley on Monday were sentenced in Atlanta federal court on fraud convictions, with Todd Chrisley receiving 12 years and his wife, Julie Chrisley, receiving a sentence of seven years. 

The Chrisleys were convicted in June of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million by providing fake financial statements making it look as if they were wealthier than they were. Prosecutors proved that the couple used the loans to buy expensive cars, take extravagant trips, and live a lifestyle they couldn’t afford, while also hiding money from the IRS to avoid paying taxes.

Peter Tarantino, the couple’s accountant, was also sentenced Monday to 36 months in prison for his role in committing fraud on his clients’ behalf.

During the emotional sentencing hearing on Monday, Assistant US Attorney Annalise Peters showed footage of the Chrisleys bragging about spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothes, from their 30,000-square-foot home, while avoiding taxes and in the middle of bankruptcy.

This sounds exactly like Tish James’ case in New York against Donald Trump. Why don’t the same criminal laws apply to him that apply Todd and Julie Crissley?

Anti-woke bank gets a rude awakening

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

They weren’t on the up and up

Maybe a little “wokeness” isn’t such a bad thing after all:

The Texas startup that sought to build a conservative banking alternative is shutting down.

GloriFi has laid off most of its employees and told them that it is closing up shop, according to people familiar with the matter and emails to employees reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. 

The company’s fate became clear on Friday, when funding that it hoped would carry it through the first quarter fell through, Cathy Landtroop, the company’s chief marketing and communications officer, said in an email to employees.

The “financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories took their toll,” Ms. Landtroop wrote in the email.

GloriFi’s app made its debut in September. The company said customers could open checking and savings accounts and apply for credit cards. The app was aimed at people who saw Wall Street as too liberal and wanted a bank that shared their values.

An October article in the Journal detailed GloriFi’s turbulent start. The company missed launch dates, blaming faulty technology and failures by vendors, and laid off dozens of employees. Some employees said that founder Toby Neugebauer had a volatile temper and drank on the job, and that the company’s unusual workspace—Mr. Neugebauer’s home—added distractions.

Mr. Neugebauer stepped down as CEO following the article’s publication and became the company’s executive chairman. 

The company raised about $50 million from an A-list group of investors last year. In July, GloriFi announced a deal to merge with DHC Acquisition Corp., DHCA 0.10%increase; green up pointing triangle a special-purpose acquisition company. The deal valued GloriFi at about $1.7 billion and required the company to raise at least $60 million in additional cash. 

“This is a devastating day,” Mr. Neugebauer wrote in an email to employees. 

Yet another scam. And yet some fools gave this idiot $50 million dollars. $50 million dollars! To run a bank in his house!

This is the caliber of MAGA businessmen. They follow their Dear Leader in every way.

A little polling post election

Published by digby on November 22, 2022

Emerson:

In a hypothetical 2024 Democratic Primary, President Biden holds a 42% plurality of support, followed by Vice President Kamala Harris with 17%, and Bernie Sanders at 12%. On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump leads with 55% support in a hypothetical 2024 Republican Primary, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a quarter of Republican support (25%). No other candidate reaches double-digit support for the Republican or Democratic nomination. 

It’s not an overwhelming GOP majority for Trump. But it’s a majority. Right now all the possible challengers are playing to a very small audience of big donors. But a few more polls like this and I’d expect some of these presidential hopefuls to start crawling back to Mar-a-lago. And those donors will will certainly open their wallets to Trump eventually.

Here’s the breakdown:

Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of Emerson College Polling noted, “There is a stark education divide among Republican primary voters. A 71% majority of voters with a high school degree or less support Trump in 2024 whereas 14% support DeSantis. A 53% majority of those with a college degree, some college, or associate’s degree  support Trump while 28% support DeSantis. By contrast, Republican voters with a postgraduate degree are most split: 32% support Trump, 29% support DeSantis, and 18% support Mike Pence for the Republican nomination.”

Kimball added: “There is also an age divide in the Republican primary: younger voters under 50 break for Trump over DeSantis 67% to 14%, voters between 50 and 64 break for Trump 54% to 32%, while Republicans over 65 are more split: 39% support Trump and 32% DeSantis.”

It’s interesting that people over 65 are more split than younger voters. But it’s the education divide that makes Trump so powerful. A majority of white, non-college educated voters are GOP.

In a potential 2024 Presidential Election between President Biden and former President Donald Trump, Biden holds a four-point lead over Trump, 45% to 41%. Nine percent would support someone else and 6% are undecided. If Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were the 2024 nominee, he trails Biden by four, 39% to 43%; 11% would support someone else and 8% are undecided. In a match-up between President Biden and Representative Liz Cheney, Biden leads 37% to 19%, while 33% would vote for someone else, and 11% are undecided. 

Kimball noted, “In a hypothetical match-up between Cheney and Biden, a 55% majority of Republican voters would vote for someone else on the 2024 ballot, along with a 36% plurality of independents.”

Cheney is not going to get the GOP nomination. Lol. And if she ran as an Independent she’d probably take quite a few votes from Biden (because people are stupid) and that would not be good. Let’s hope she doesn’t get it into head to do that.

The plurality of voters (46%) find the economy to be the most important issue facing the United States, followed by “threats to democracy” (12%), immigration (9%), abortion access (7%), healthcare (6%), and crime (6%). 

A majority of voters (52%) think that Congress should continue to investigate the events of January 6th, while 39% think they should not. 

That 39% are real patriots…

Quinnipiac:

One week after former President Donald Trump announced he was seeking to return to the White House with a 2024 presidential bid, Americans 57 – 34 percent think Trump running for president in 2024 is a bad thing, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of adults released today.

Democrats (88 – 8 percent) and independents (58 – 32 percent) think it’s a bad thing, while Republicans (62 – 27 percent) think it’s a good thing.

A majority of Americans (55 percent) think Donald Trump has had a mainly negative impact on the Republican Party, while 37 percent think he has had a mainly positive impact. Republicans 70 – 24 percent think Trump has had a mainly positive impact on their party.

Roughly one-third of Americans (35 percent) consider themselves supporters of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, while 60 percent do not consider themselves supporters. Nearly 8 in 10 Republicans (79 percent) consider themselves supporters of the MAGA movement, while 16 percent do not.

Roughly half of Americans (49 percent) think it’s either very likely (18 percent) or somewhat likely (31 percent) that Donald Trump will win another presidential election, while 48 percent think it’s either not so likely (23 percent) or not likely at all (25 percent).

The poll also says they want Ron DeSantis to run so whatever.