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Just 25% of Americans say they are Republicans…Open Thread for 4/7/2021

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Chris Cillizza, over at CNN does a piece on the bleeding of the Grand ole Party since Trump….

Should Republican leaders and lawmakers be worried about this?

Or ?

Will they press on regardless trying to amplify their supports still their with voter suppression efforts to knock to the almost 50% of voters that say they are Democrats out from the ballot boxes?

We KNOW most Republican lawmakers are NOT walking away from Trump right now….

As the Republican Party continues to figure out what it looks like — and what it believes — in the wake of four years of the most radical president in modern memory, new data suggests that the outlook is dire.

Gallup polling for the first three months of 2021 shows that 49% of the public identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaners, while just 40% call themselves Republicans or say they lean toward the GOP.
That’s the largest gap between Democrats and Republicans in Gallup’s quarterly study of party identification in nearly a decade. The last time Democrats had a larger lead on party ID was early 2009….
…
“Republican advantages have generally been rare and short-lived, but occurred when Americans rallied around incumbent Republican presidents George H.W. Bush after the 1991 U.S. victory in the Gulf War and George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The GOP also had brief leads in party affiliation in the periods surrounding Republican electoral successes in the 1994, 2010 and 2014 midterm elections.”
But it’s not just the party ID gap that stands out in Gallup’s first-quarter polling. It’s this: Just 25% of the public calls themselves Republicans — close to the lowest (22%) that Gallup has ever measured since it started doing telephone-based polling. (Another 15% say they lean to Republicans.)
When you combine those two data points, you get this: Not many people want to be a Republican at the moment. The party’s brand is quite clearly damaged after four years of Donald Trump seeking to break every political norm possible.
The Point: Smart GOP strategists look at these numbers and know the best strategy is to immediately start charting a course away from Trump. The problem? The party base still loves the former President — and has no plans on abandoning him….

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  2. And in more GOP “outreach” GA Gov. Brian Kemp said voters in line can just order pizza or grubhub.

    What this comes down to is white Republicans who would have crawled over broken glass to vote for Trump have this idea that urban minorities voted for Biden because someone gave them a bottle of water and a sandwich.

  3. Trump anti-immigration officials form legal attack group (AFP)

    Former officials who steered Donald Trump’s anti-immigration offensive announced a new legal advocacy group Wednesday aimed at attacking the “radical activist left” agenda allegedly on the rise under President Joe Biden.

    Stephen Miller, the powerful White House aide who directed Trump’s attack on immigration, Gene Hamilton, Miller’s top ally in the Justice Department at the time, and Trump ‘s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, will lead the America First Legal Foundation.

    They described it as a “new conservative nonprofit organization committed to upholding America First principles and combating the left’s radical and lawless agenda.”

    “For too long, conservative and traditionalist Americans have been outflanked, outspent, out-organized, and outmaneuvered by radical progressive legal organizations,” Miller said in a statement.

    “Whenever the Trump Administration tried to implement positive, lawful change that put America First, these extremist organizations filed one lawsuit after another, shopping for the most favorable legal forum. Now, we must turn the tables.”

    The group said on its website that it plans to battle liberal policies by challenging them in court, and will cooperate with groups with similar agendas, including conservative state officials.

    It said it will not be focused on any single issue. But under Trump, Miller and Hamilton were the spearheads of his controversial anti-immigration agenda….

    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-anti-immigration-officials-form-141955427.html

  4. Georgia’s Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan has confirmed what was obvious ,except to the those who simply refuse to concede Trumps continued dominance of the Republican Party.

    Despite the Georgia Republicans and their Trump Republican allies claims,the motivating force for their new elections laws was the actions of Trump stooge Rudy Guiliani and his lies that there was fraud in the November election.Duncan said the momentum for the changes was Guiliani spending hours of testimony blatantly lying to the Georgia Republican in the Legislature.

    What Duncan doesn’t say of course is that the Trumpites heard what they wanted to hear because they wanted to believe the lies.Also what he doesn’t say is that Governor Kemp the Wimp was desperately trying to curry favor with his master Trump after refusing to commit a possibly criminal action in going along with Trumps plan to steal the election..

    It did the Wimp no good though.Trump is still bellyaching that there are still too many days to vote.

    As for LG Duncan.Apparently he is trying to cleanse his soul a little.Reports are that he is not planning to run for re-election.

    Republicans always seem to try to set the record straight as they leave office or,in the case of former House Speaker John Boehner,years after they’re gone

    • I was not aware (or had forgotten) that Giuliani had any involvement with the Georgia legislature.

      It is worthwhile to note that all of these bills to make it more difficult to vote came as a result of actions (by Trump and his seditionists) after the 2021 election.

  5. Speakimg of boehner, I read that GOP Rep Don Young held a knife to Boehner’s throat over a disagreement on earmarks. Having a healthy relationship with Republicans can be challenging. I recall a former coworker once pulled out a gun and threatened me at work too.

    • Morning…..

      Prince Philip, Husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Is Dead at 99
      The Duke of Edinburgh, who married the future queen in 1947, brought the monarchy into the 20th century, but his occasional frank comments hurt his image….

      More….

      • Not my favourite Roayl, but I’m still sad to read this.

        Two decades ago, the Queen lost her mother (Elizabeth the Queen Mother, born 1900, i.e. under Victoria) and her only sibling, Princess Margaret, in the course of a single month.

        Together with the nasty rift with her grandson Prince Harry and the Pandemic-that-won’t-go-away, things must be very hard for Queen Elizabeth right now.

        • Pat McCrory, the former Republican governor of North Carolina, is planning to launch his campaign for the state’s open Senate seat this week, according to people familiar with his plans.

          The former governor, who won the office in 2012 and lost reelection in 2016, would begin the primary in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr as an early frontrunner…

          More…

  7. Presented without comment: 47% of Trump voters oppose a “vaccine passport”.
    10% of Biden voters oppose it.
    Per NPR.

  8. A woman was told to put on a mask inside a Florida Walgreens. Instead she went on a racist and Islamophobic rant against other customers.

    Sarah Al-Arshani
    [Business] Insider, Tue, April 13, 2021, 1:16 AM·

    A woman unleashed an Islamophobic and racist rant on a group shopping at a Florida Walgreens.

    The rant started after employees told the woman to wear a mask.

    Instead, the woman turned her attention to a couple and their friend.

    Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

    A New York couple stopped by a Walgreens while on vacation recently in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and were met with an Islamophobic and racist rant from a woman who refused an employee’s request to wear a mask.

    Videos uploaded on Facebook earlier this month by Nahla Ebaid, an Egyptian American, went viral. Ebaid told Insider that she and her husband and their friend Angie Elyamani were shopping in the store when the woman walked in maskless.

    An employee asked the woman to put on a mask. She turned and focused her attention on the group.

    “She rolls her eyes and looked at me and said, ‘You know, I wish I was from your country so I don’t have to wear the mask,'” Elyamani said.

    The woman, identified as Lubyca Bozanich in a police report reviewed by Insider, also spit on Ebaid’s husband, Tamir Elhadad.

    In the videos Ebaid posted, the woman can be heard calling Elyamin and Ebaid, who both wear a hijab, “ugly” and ridiculing how they’re dressed.

    “Why do you have clothes like that?” Bozanich says. She later adds: “You’re ugly! No wonder people hate you! Israelis rule because you guys are ugly.”

    Ebaid said the women also yelled racial slurs at a Black employee and later at a Black police officer, alongside anti-Asian sentiments.

    Elyamin said Bozanich had been staring at her from the moment she walked into the store.

    “She was looking at me up and down, like, from top to bottom,” Elyamin said. “I felt like I was targeted.”

    Ebaid said she started recording because she was worried. She said her intention had been to record what was happening for the police, not to put the video online.

    In the videos, Bozanich can be seen calling the police while hurling racist remarks.

    “There’s Muslims here that are threatening me,” she says….

    https://news.yahoo.com/woman-told-put-mask-inside-051625165.html

    Facebook videos of the incident (5):

    https://www.facebook.com/nahla.salah1/videos/pcb.10165162568570046/10165162559450046/?type=3&theater

    • Like the Jan 6 Traitors I bet the defense of this woman will be that she suffers from “economic anxiety”

        • Interesting …..

          Quote of the Day

          “Can I tell you my favorite thing about the governor? He’s got tremendous balls. Absolutely enormous balls.”

          — Joe Biden, quoted by the New York Times, privately to an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2015, while “the future commander in chief cupped his hands as if cradling melons.”

            • Bernie Madoff, the infamous financier who copped to orchestrating the most notorious Ponzi scheme in history, died Wednesday in federal prison. He was 82.

              Madoff, serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to perpetrating a $65 billion fraud, died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, apparently from natural causes, the Associated Press first reported….

              More…

    • Joke of the Day?

      GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) announced on Sunday that she plans to introduce a resolution to expel Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.) from Congress.

      Greene in a statement on Sunday said that she will “be introducing a resolution to expel Rep. Maxine Waters from Congress for her continual incitement of violence.”

      The Republican lawmaker specifically targeted Waters for speaking to protesters at a demonstration in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on Saturday. Protests broke out in the city last week after police fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop on April 11….

      More…

      • Nancy Pelosi came to Maxine Waters’ defense on Monday, after GOP lawmakers said Waters’ remarks in Minnesota stoked violence

        Politico

        • Politico

          Waters told The Grio today that her remarks were about “confronting the justice system, confronting the policing that’s going on,” through legislation and “speaking up.” politi.co/32vzWmZ

          • More on the Dem House member Fromm California

            Maxine Waters’ Comments May Be Grounds for Appeal

            “The judge overseeing former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s trial in the death of George Floyd said Monday that Rep. Maxine Waters’ comments could be grounds for appealing a verdict in the trial,” CNN reports.

            Said Judge Peter Cahill: “I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.”

            “Waters on Saturday night had called for protesters to ‘stay on the street’ and ‘get more confrontational’ if Chauvin is acquitted in Floyd’s killing.”

            • Waters update….

              210 Republican House members vote to censure The House Rep from California…

              House refuses

              Only 10 Republicans voted against Greene… talking about far worst…

    • John Sciutto

      Closing arguments just wrapped up in the trial of ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The jury will soon begin deliberations.

    • I can’t regret Walter Mondale’s longevity, but I’m still sad about his death.

      One of the last of the Hubert Humphrey-Eugene McCarthy-Orville Freeman generation of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

      Al Gore & Joe Biden are now the last living Democratic Vice Presidents; and Dick Cheney & Dan Quayle the last living Republican VPs.

      Walter Mondale was also one of the last living Democrats to lose an election for Vice President (in 1980) or an election for President (1984).

      [Tim Kaine (2016*) and Joe Lieberman (2000*) also lost for VP, while Jimmy Carter (1980), Michael Dukakis (1988), Al Gore (2000*) and Hillary Clinton (2016*) are the last living Democrats to lose a Presidential election, although Senators Gore, Lieberman, Clinton and Kaine all won more popular votes than did their Republican opponents.]

  15. Musician Ted Nugent, a well known Republican, NRA supporter, Trump loyalist, COVID denier and anti vaxxer has tested positive for…Covid.

    In a video filled with racist slurs against the Chinese he claims he thought he would die several times in the last 10 days–but he still won’t get the vaccine.

    My thoughts and prayers.

  17. GOP arguments against D.C. statehood (from a Boston Globe newletter by Teresa Hanafin)

    Statehood for D.C.: House Democrats voted today to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., a decades-long campaign by residents of the district who pay taxes, vote for president, serve in the armed forces, etc., but don’t have a vote in Congress on any legislation, including laws that directly affect them. The bill now goes to the Senate.

    Republicans are opposed, of course, because the one representative and two senators the district would get would likely be Democrats. But some of the arguments they are advancing against the idea are pretty funny, as outlined by Forbes:

    — D.C. has an estimated 712,000 residents, a size that GOP Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina claimed “wouldn’t even qualify as a singular congressional district.” That must have been news to Liz Cheney, who was standing behind Mace as she made her remarks. Cheney represents Wyoming, which has a total population of just 580,000, not including bison, pronghorn antelopes, and greater sage-grouse.

    D.C. also has more people than Vermont does, although Vermont has the edge in cows. And it has more people than about 90 current congressional districts in states like Rhode Island, West Virginia, Nebraska, Vermont, Maine, Illinois, Minnesota, Alabama, South Carolina — wait … isn’t Mace from South Carolina? I guess she’s ignorant of the fact that two of the seven districts in her own state have fewer people than D.C.

    — US Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana says D.C. shouldn’t be a state because it has too much violent crime. Maybe he’s on to something. Let’s make the country safer by kicking the five most violent states out of the union: Alaska, New Mexico, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Um, Steve, remind me: Where do you live again?

    — Rep. Glenn Grothmann of Wisconsin doesn’t think D.C. should be a state because it doesn’t have any manufacturing, agriculture, or mining. Interesting criteria, but I beg to differ! Republicans in D.C. are masters at manufacturing fake controversies, and they certainly spread a lot of manure around, which Grothmann may bring from his dairy state.

    — Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia objected because statehood would make D.C. “the only state … without a car dealership,” and honestly, I got nothin’ here. (BTW, it does have car dealerships.)

    • Thete is absolutely No way GOPer’s in the Senate and some Dem’s apparently will vote for a 51st state…

    • Nancy Mace is not exactly the brightest bulb around

      Her claim to fame is she was the one of the first two women to graduate from The Citadel, the then all male military college in Charleston.

      She ran for the US Senate in the Republican Primary in 2014 against Lindsay Graham(this was in his “moderate” days when John McCain was still around) and S.C. Republicans regularly denounced him as a “librul.” Nancy came in fourth I believe in a seven person field with Lindsay polling a fairly unimpressive 56% against a bunch of nobodies (like Mace.)A few years later she won a seat in the State Legislature.

      She then narrowly ousted one term Democrat Joe Cunningham ,in a Republican drawn district .by an unimpressive narrow margin.

      She already has opposition from some unknown military wife who finds her not Right Wing enough(in other words a real kook).

    • Hilarious post DSD .

      Those Republicans have no shame.

      I mean I get why they don’t want DC to be a state , but why go to all the trouble to manufacture all these lies.

  18. GOP Sen Ron Johnson says Covid vaccine distribution should be “limited” to those most vulnerable.

    He also the comment that the vaccine is “not fully approved”.

    But I’ll wait to hear if a two term Senator is more or less relevant than RFK Jr.

    • Well Scott you know that RFK Jr. is a major fundraiser for the Democrats, they all travel to LA to kiss his ring.

      One of the weakest “whatabouts” ever since he hasn’t raised a dime for any Democrat I know, he’s treated like he’s got COVID.

    • It’s amusing that a Trump “boy” like this nutjob should be saying things about the vaccinate as Trump hails it as one of his major achievements.

      The Republican Master ought to call this “boy” and tell him to sit down and STFU.

      That would probably do it.

    • One would have thought that Republicans would have come forward to denounce this kooks pseudoscience gobbledygook about vaccinations.

      One would be wrong.

      Johnson understands that a substantial portion of the Jan.6 Party ,in addition to a lingering sympathy for the seditionists who invaded the Capitol(often described by Republicans as “well meaning”) are also vigorously anti science,inventing all sorts of foolish reasons to avoid vaccination usually revolving around their obsessive anti government jargon.

      Thus,,Republicans are reluctant to go up against the likes of this kook and others of his ilk understanding that they represent a goodly portion of their party, usually the most vocal.

      Such makes them ,as well as the Republicans who know how absurd these claims are ,just as bad as the kooks in my book.

  19. On a personal note my older brother, who leans conservative, is done with anti vaxxers. He lost one of his best friends to COVID a few days ago. Apparently his friend wasn’t a strident anti vaxx, but just said he’d get around to it. Now he’s dead and I saw my brother nearly in tears over it Thursday night. He has another friend who is super conservative and was on the “covid is a hoax” train till he nearly died of it a couple months ago.

    Then there is the issue of his daughter, my niece. Who is an adult and college educated. She lives several hours away in rural Missouri and has posted quite a few anti vaxx memes on social media. It seems to be a thing with her group of 20-30 something moms in their rural/small town area to be mildly conservative and suspicious of the vaccine. Not necessarily in a strident conspiracy theory way, but by posting memes they think are funny. I noticed she has stopped that in recent days. I hope that means she is listening to her dad.

    • The vaccine issue STILL remain’s complex no matter what…

      Sorry to hear about your brother’s friend passing Scott…

      • There is no “issue” with the vaccine, James.

        The only issue is with healthy people’s hesitancy about, resistance to and even hostility against getting vaccinated.

        Those who claim there’s some issue with the vaccine are the issue.

        Don’t join them.

        • I simply report that SOME DO have a problem with the vaccine….

          Millions….

          Millions have taken it…

          I do NOT have an issue with it….

          • And that’s a lie.

            You have a big issue with it.

            That’s why you keep that BS about it being “complex” going.

          • POLITICO
            @politico
            Recognizing the World War I-era killings marks decades of efforts by the Armenian community. But President Biden’s decision was also decades in the making

          • Travis Akers
            @travisakers
            I was shocked to learn that not a single bill introduced by Rep. Jim Jordan has been passed in Congress.

            This is his 14th year in the House of Representatives.

          • philip lewis
            @Phil_Lewis_
            A Japanese man has been arrested after reportedly dating more than 35 women at the same time in order to get birthday gifts from all of them

            He gave each woman a different date for his birthday, ensuring a constant stream of gifts through the year.

          • A few days ago you claimed that two reasons it was “complex” was that people were having ahard time getting off work and that they were “concerned” about the long term effects of the vaccine(in other words you are)..

            Now to describe these reasons as “complex”gives new meaning to that word.

            The first is utter BS and unworthy of comment as vaccinations are now regularly given on weekends .

            As to the other ,so you are “concerned “about the long term effects of vaccines ?Are you “concerned” about the long term effects of Covid?Or the short term effects like lengthy hospitalizations and death?By not getting the vaccine you and others act as incubators for the various mutations of the virus and are ,in effect, helping keep the pandemic going.

            There is nothing “complex” about ignorance and stupidity .

            • Folks?
              You can dance with me all ya want…
              The FACT and REALITY IS that for MILLIONS of Americans the vaccine STILL presents a complexity…

              It has from rhe jump
              Some places have good shot numbers
              Some do not

              The reasons can be outright fear of injections, religious, political, logistical or even medical…

              Pile on me
              No problem
              It will NOT change anything
              Biden’s people and others are working overtime on millions that have not signed on…

              In general infection numbers are declining…

              But people do not always do what’s good for them….

              Heck Donald Trump got elected President
              It took 4 years for people to smarten up…

        • I agree with Jack. There’s no reason for the vaccine to be “complex”.

          Anyone who thinks they know better than doctors and medical experts because they watched a You Tube video is wrong.

          They just are.

  20. From National Review

    [I’ll leave it to James to do the responsible journalistic work I’m dodging by digging up that story in People and/or GWBush’s interview that aired on NBC last Tuesday.]

    George W. Bush Says He Wrote in Condoleezza Rice in 2020 Presidential Election
    By BRITTANY BERNSTEIN
    April 23, 2021 5:33 PM

    Former President George W. Bush recently revealed that instead of voting for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, he wrote in the name of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

    “She knows it,” Bush reportedly told People magazine of Rice, who served as secretary of state during his presidency. “But she told me she would refuse to accept the office.”

    In 2016, Bush and former first lady Laura Bush did not cast votes for a presidential candidate, voting only for Republican candidates in down-ballot races, his spokesperson said.

    Bush’s decision not to vote for his party’s nominee two presidential cycles running may be the product of bad blood between the Bush family and Trump in the wake of the 2016 GOP primary.

    During the 2016 race, Trump repeatedly insulted Bush’s brother, Jeb Bush, who also ran a 2016 bid for the presidency. While campaigning, Trump also criticized the Bush legacy and blamed George W. Bush for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

    Though Bush has been critical of the GOP in recent promotional interviews for his new book Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants, he used the People interview to walk back his recent harsh appraisal of the party.

    In an interview with NBC’s Today that aired Tuesday, Bush called the GOP “isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist.”

    He later toned down his remarks in his interview with People: “Really, what I should have said — there’s loud voices who are isolationists, protectionists and nativists, something, by the way, I talked about when I was president.”

    “But I painted with too broad a brush … because by saying what I said, it excluded a lot of Republicans who believe we can fix the problem,” he added.

    While promoting the new book, which features portraits of American immigrants, Bush has said he hopes to usher in a more “respectful tone” on Capitol Hill.

    The mission of the book, he said, is to help change Congress’ outlook on the country’s immigration policy.

    “Please put aside all the harsh rhetoric about immigration,” Bush said, addressing Congress in an interview with CBS News that aired Sunday. “Please put aside trying to score political points on either side.”

    Bush, a Republican who served as president from 2001 to 2009, has supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants given they pass a background check and pay any back taxes.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/news/george-w-bush-says-he-wrote-in-condoleezza-rice-in-2020-presidential-election/

    • I saw the Rice piece….

      Bush II has been outspoke recently on the failure of this country being able to put together Immigration Reform…

      Actually?

      Jack could point out that the former President is speaking in an empty hallway to himself….

    • All the sudden Black Republicans ARE in with Trump?

      Rice…

      Sen Scott….

      Hershal Walker….

  21. Oh you’ve become as big a whiner as Trump ,whom you increasingly resemble with your lies and obfuscation.

    No one is “piling” on you ,rather some of are expressing our frustration at people like you ,who ,by refusing to be vaccinated are perpetuating this pandemic.

    Contrary to your expressed view ,almost without exception this pandemic is the number one issue on people’s minds that I come in contact with.No one gives a damn about Afghanistan ,a topic you have become obsessed with ,running daily repetitious stories about.

    Almost every reputable scientific authority in the country,even those identified as “conservative ,” advocates vaccination as the way out of this pandemic and have expressed the fear that vaccine deniers, such as you, are serving as incubators for continuing this present state of affairs.

    Our criticism,accordingly,is directed at those ,like you ,who are making up excuses for refusing to take actions that could end it.

    Apparently,you share the Trumpian view, that this thing will just “go away.”Im not greatly surprised that someone like you ,with your weird often illogical views ,might believe such drivel.It is why I will continue to criticize you and others for perpetuating deaths and suffering that we finally have a weapon to help prevent ,as you and others of your ilk wallow in your fears,ignorance , religious fanaticism and political foolishness as the suffering continues and you babble on about your sympathies for the “poor Afghans.( whom you couldn’t care less about).

    “Piling on?” No

    Disgust?Absolutely!

  22. And while we are constantly regaled here as to how the;Republican Party is moving away from Trump,the facts on the ground reveal the opposite :

    -In county meetings in Georgia old line party functionaries are being routinely replaced with Trumpite extremists.

    – In Arizona ,Republicans are engaged in an “election audit” in an attempt to “prove” Trumps lies as to election fraud.

    – The keynote speaker at a Republican County convention in Minnesota claimed that the George Floyd Murder was “planned” in 2016 and that a hundred Democrats in Congess should be “investigated “ for “espionage “ activities for the Communists and Islamists.( this kook actually makes the Trumpites look “moderate”)

    The REAL Republican Party 2021

    • Great point Jack on the Trump coattails!
      I hope this knuckleheads in Trump country KEEP drinking the kool-aid and follow in his tracks with losses❗️

      Meanwhile Jack?

      As i will continue to point out other establishment GOPer’s walk away from the Big Guy…

      Senators ARE sitting down together on infrastructure….Biden cabinet members are getting GOPer votes…Across the country those who voted to impeach Trump are raising money and still coming to work ..the RNC is in a ‘tug of war’ with Trump over money….

      Again?

      You have ur view…

      But the Reality IS ‘complex’🙄

  23. The Mayor of Columbia, S.C., talks to the Brown University Policy Lab via ZOOM at 3 p.m. today:

    https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leading-local-mayor-stephen-k-benjamin-tickets-149547473519

    The Policy Lab presents:

    Leading Local
    Featuring Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina
    Leading Local is a speaker series featuring Mayors from across the country, discussing the challenges and opportunities of implementing policy changes at the city level.

    ZOOM LINK: https://brown.zoom.us/j/97755857298

    Former Mayor of Central Falls (R.I.) and current Senior Advisor at The Policy Lab, James Diossa, will chat with Mayor Benjamin about his economic revitalization of Main Street, his tenure as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and what it’s like to lead at the local level.

    About Mayor Benjamin:

    Since being elected mayor in a record turnout election in April 2010, Mayor Steve Benjamin has made it his mission to create in Columbia “the most talented, educated and entrepreneurial city in America.”

    Mayor Benjamin’s administration has been characterized by his firm belief in Columbia’s potential and intense focus on job creation. In his first term alone, his leadership helped cut unemployment in the metro by roughly half and secured billions of dollars in new regional capital investment in the midst of a national recession.

    He is a firm believer in common sense bipartisan leadership and endeavors to implement policies and programming that provide the best course of action for city residents….

    • Benjamin is being talked about as a possible Democratic gubernatorial candidate next year.

      Former Congressman Joe Cunningham also is expressing interest in opposing incumbent Henry McMaster ,the presumed Republican nominee.

      Benjamin has run statewide before losing a bid for AttorneyGeneral in 2010.

      Neither Benjamin nor Cunninghams prospects appear bright however.No Democrat has been elected Governor in S.C. since 1998,nor has a Democrat won a statewide race since 2006.

  25. James will seize on this story as proof that Trump is currently losing influence in the GOP. But the most important number is buried: 7 out of every 10 Republicans under the age of 30 still support Donald Trump.

    This story about organized college Republicans just seems to be a class shift, often noted (and repeating similar trends in the 196o’s & 1970’s), within this generation, where the GOP’s leader loses support among the upper-middle class and college-educated, while gaining it among the working classes without a B.A.

    For many U.S. college Republicans, time to ‘move on’ from Trump

    By Maria Caspani and Nathan Layne
    Posted on April 26, 2021

    (Reuters) – When a majority of Cornell University’s Republican club voted to endorse President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, many of its moderate members left the group.

    After Joe Biden won and club leader Weston Barker wrote an op-ed in the school paper urging people to accept the Democrat as the legitimately elected president, pro-Trump members defected.

    The club remains deeply divided months later, Barker said, with its members – like Republicans nationally – split on the best path forward as the party looks to regain some power in next year’s midterm congressional elections.

    While Trump remains popular among Republicans of all ages, he lost support in the last year’s election from white, college-educated voters. In recent interviews, members and leaders of a dozen Republican clubs on U.S. campuses said fresh leadership and a wider embrace of issues such as fighting climate change are key to the future of the party they will help mold for decades to come.

    Trump “ran a campaign and he lost. I personally believe the party needs to move on,” said Joseph Pitts, president of the Republican club at Arizona State University.

    Despite Republicans losing the White House in November and the Senate in January, Trump has signaled his desire to be a dominant force in the party ahead of another potential presidential bid in 2024. The former president’s political action committee has raised $85 million to fund attacks on his opponents and boost his loyalists.

    About seven in 10 Republicans under 30 have a favorable impression of Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted April 12-16, while three in 10 have an unfavorable view of him.

    But even among the young conservatives who did not openly oppose the former president, several said his presence at the top hindered its ability to create a “big tent” party. That could pose a problem for Republicans’ electoral prospects in an increasingly diverse country.

    “We want to move beyond some of the divisions and some of the anger that has definitely defined the country over the past four years,” said Ben Smith, the president of College Republicans of Louisiana State University.

    He said his club’s members have expressed excitement about younger party figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and U.S. Senator Tim Scott.

    CLIMATE ACTION

    Several college Republicans said they wanted the party to focus on core values, including limited government and deregulation, and to overcome its reluctance on embracing climate change.

    The latter is crucial to students such as Smith living in places like Louisiana that are especially vulnerable to climate threats.

    “We’re at the forefront on a lot of the coastal erosion that’s happening in the country right now, so climate change is something that we’d definitely like to see a response on,” he said.

    At Florida State University, college Republicans have urged state lawmakers to create an environmental resiliency office and a task force on sea level rise, according to the club’s vice chair, Steven Richards.

    Young Republicans’ engagement on climate change will eventually lead to a shift on the issue among conservatives, said Benjamin Backer, the founder and president of the American Conservation Coalition, a conservative youth environmental organization….

    https://www.metro.us/for-many-u-s-college/

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