Year: 2017
The ‘Anti-Suburban Tax Bill’ Will Take Its Toll
“The suburbs are swinging back to us.”
— Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), saying the Republican tax proposal is “an anti-suburban tax bill” because it would reduce how much homeowners can deduct in state and local taxes, the Washington Post reports.
Alabama’s Turning Purple
50% to 45%
Alan Abramowitz: “When Alabama voters were asked which party they would prefer to control the Senate, 50% chose Republicans while 45% chose Democrats. That is a stunning result — perhaps even more stunning than Jones’s victory. Moreover, only 43% had a favorable opinion of the Republican Party while 47% had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party.”
Trump Approval Approaches 30%
32% to 56%
A new Monmouth poll finds President Trump’s job approval at 32% to 56%, the lowest since he’s taken office. The decline in Trump’s job rating has come much more from women, currently 24% to 68%, than from men, which is 40% to 44%. Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot by 15 percentage points, 51% to 36%.
CPJ Annual Report Describes a Bleak Year for Press Repression
The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued its annual report, and it details a pretty bleak year for journalists worldwide, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better in 2018:
For the second year in a row, the number of journalists imprisoned for their work hit a historical high, as the U.S. and other Western powers failed to pressure the world’s worst jailers — Turkey, China, and Egypt — into improving the bleak climate for press freedom.
Alabama Cities and ‘Burbs Rejected Moore
68%
New York Times: “Voters in Alabama’s cities and most affluent suburbs overwhelmingly rejected Mr. Moore’s candidacy, an ominous sign for Republicans on the ballot next year in upscale districts. In Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham and some of the state’s wealthiest enclaves, Mr. Jones, the Democratic candidate, captured more than 68% of the vote. And in Madison County, home to Huntsville and a large NASA facility, Mr. Jones won 57 percent of the vote.”
Former Breitbart Spox Attributes Moore Loss to Free Press
“Let’s not forget that this race was competitive in the first place because of the diligence, competence and tenacity of some enterprising reporters at the Washington Post and the Birmingham News (among others). What happened tonight illustrates how impactful and important the free press is in our political process. No matter how much noise there is about the ‘fake news’ media, the fact remains that the frontline of defense for our Republic begins and ends with the ability to pursue the truth and tell it…”
— Kurt Bardella, who used to rep Breitbart and has become an outspoken critic of Bannon and the site, in an email to CNN’s Brian Stelter.
How the GOP Ended Up with Candidates Like Donald Trump and Roy Moore
A new Morning Consult poll reveals that Republicans care more about a candidate’s policy positions than they do about his or her character. That explains how a serial sexual assaulter became president and a serial pedophile almost became a U.S. senator.
Here’s the data:
