Two polls to share this morning, the first from Gallup, conducted between June 1 and July 5, which asked how much confidence Americans placed in science based on party affiliation. The poll compared results from four decades ago. Here are the "a great deal" or "quite a lot" responses (click to enlarge):
That's only 45% of Republicans who have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in science, compared to 72% four decades ago. A significant segment of the population that embraces anti- vaccination misinformation, anti- intellectualism, lowIQAnon conspiracy theories, and Christo-fascist notions of faith healing while rejecting science and scientific evidence -- that's what science might refer to as devolution.
The second poll from Yahoo News/YouGov asked about voting rights, specifically the measures being taken by Republicans to restrict access to voting and Democratic efforts to improve voting access. Among the key findings:
... None of the most common GOP restrictions attracts the support of more than 36 percent of Americans, and opposition outpaces support across the board. By a 12-point margin, those surveyed said they did not favor “making it harder to vote by mail”; by 8 points, they were against “banning or cutting back on mail ballot drop-boxes”; by 15 points they did not approve of “shortening the early or absentee voting period”; by 8 points they did not favor “giving more power to partisan observers to police polling places”; and by 40 points they rejected the idea of “making it harder to vote early (in person).” Again, independents oppose all of these measures by margins similar to Americans at large.
Looking at several of the compromise provisions of the John Lewis Voting Rights bill proposed by Sen. Manchin (and endorsed by President Obama), the survey found broad support for more, rather than less, voting access, specifically:
“making Election Day a national holiday so people have time off from work to vote” (63 percent support, while 19 percent oppose)
“banning partisan gerrymandering, the practice by which politicians redraw congressional districts to help their own party win” (50 percent to 24 percent)
“requiring at least 15 consecutive days of early voting in federal elections” (49 percent to 21 percent)
“requiring voters to show some form of identification before casting a ballot, such as a utility bill with their name and address on it” (61 percent to 20 percent)
“blocking new election laws enacted by state or local governments with a history of racist election practices until those laws are approved by federal courts or the Department of Justice” (44 percent to 27 percent)
If only certain Democratic senators (including the one sponsoring these provisions) believed enough in these reforms enough to make an exception to the filibuster.
