Year: 2016

Large Plurality of Americans Identify as Independent

Buck Banks

42%

For the fifth consecutive year, at least four in 10 U.S. adults identified as political independents. “The 42% identifying as independents in 2015 was down slightly from the record 43% in 2014,” reports Gallup. “This elevated percentage of political independents leaves Democratic (29%) and Republican (26%) identification at or near recent low points, with the modest Democratic advantage roughly where it has been over the past five years.”

Sounds More Like a Lame Excuse than Cynical, Huck

Buck Banks

A lot of these organizations wouldn’t have the ability to do urgent fundraising because if we slay the dragon, what dragon do they continue to fight? And so, for many of them, it could be a real detriment to their organization’s abilities to gin up their supporters and raise the contributions, and I know that sounds cynical but… it’s just, it is what it is.

— Mike Huckabee, “explaining” why evangelical groups won’t support his presidential campaign out of fear they would no longer be able to fundraise if Christian policies were actually put in place, BuzzFeed reports.

Cook: Cruz, Not Trump or Carson, to be Likely Anti-Establishment Candidate

Buck Banks

I re­main con­vinced that between now and the March 1 Su­per Tues­day/SEC primar­ies, and par­tic­u­larly the March 15 set of primar­ies and some con­tests after, those angry and pro­foundly anti-­es­tab­lish­ment voters will have fin­ished vent­ing their spleens. They will have sent their angry mes­sages to the polit­ic­al es­tab­lish­ment and will turn to the ser­i­ous busi­ness of se­lect­ing a pres­id­ent, tak­ing in­to ac­count such things as tem­pera­ment and judg­ment, mark­ing the be­gin­ning of the end of their af­fair with Trump. They will co­alesce be­hind a more plaus­ible vehicle for their an­ger and anti­-es­tab­lish­ment views. That can­did­ate is likely to be Cruz.

— Charlie Cook, Cook Political Report.

Which Candidate Matches You on the Issues?

Buck Banks

voting-boothYou can take a quiz to find out which presidential candidate (if any) most closely matches up with your core values. Then you’ll know how to vote!

Almost 25 million of your fellow Americans have employed the quiz to tell them whom to support in the coming election based on their values and stances on a variety of issues. So don’t be a low-information voter anymore, let the Interwebs tell you who you should vote for!

Suggestion: When taking the survey, check the “other stances” selection to give a more nuanced response and don’t forget to click on the slider that indicates how important each issue is to you.

Full disclosure: I sided 92% of the time with Bernie Sanders, 88% with Hillary Clinton and 72% with Martin O’Malley — not surprising. More disturbing, however, were my match-ups with Republicans: 21% with Donald Trump, 20% with Ben Carson and 19% with Ted Cruz.

Obviously, I’ve got some naval-staring to do …

Parliament to Take Up Measure to ban Donald Trump from the United Kingdom

Buck Banks

560,000-plus

Number of people who have signed a petition demanding that billionaire businessman Donald Trump be barred from entering the United Kingdom. “British members of Parliament “are to debate calls for the US presidential candidate Donald Trump to be banned from the UK following his controversial comments about Muslims, after more than half a million people signed a petition,” the Guardian reports. “Politicians will also discuss a separate petition opposing such a ban, even though it only gained about 40,000 signatures – well below the 100,000 threshold for triggering a debate.”

Nearly Three-Quarters of Americans Say Climate Change is Real

Buck Banks

70%

Of Americans say that the world’s climate is undergoing a change leading to more extreme weather patterns and sea level rise, including 41% who call climate change a very serious problem, according to a new Monmouth poll. Key takeaway: “There is a significant partisan divide in this view. A majority of Democrats (63%) and a plurality of independents (42%) see climate change as a very serious issue, while just 18% of Republicans agree. On the flip side, a plurality of Republicans (43%) believe climate change is not happening at all, compared with just 17% of independents and 10% of Democrats who feel the same.”

Trump Maintains National Lead

Buck Banks

35%

Donald Trump’s lead over the GOP presidential field, followed by Ted Cruz at 18% and Marco Rubio at 15%, according to the NBC News/SurveyMonkey Tracking Poll. Key takeaway: “Perhaps surprisingly, Trump also has the highest support among white evangelical voters — 33%. Although Ben Carson did fairly well among white evangelicals (12%), the group heavily favored Trump. Cruz also did well with white evangelicals, with 2 in 10 supporting him.”