This week’s polling is miscellaneous. But, we’re heading into ~the most important election of our lifetimes~ (election day is only 75 days away!), and that’s exactly what we need: a diverse look at how everyday voters feel about “the issues.”
Cue the Midweek Mood Check.
1. Term Limits
This week, we’re pleased to report that support for term limits — a major tenet of the COS cause — holds strong amongst voters. According to Rasmussen Research, large majorities of Americans favor term limits for the leaders of government agencies (81%), members of Congress (79%), and Supreme Court justices (61%). No surprise there. The past decade of American politics could easily be mistaken for a sitcom titled “Revenge of the Boomers,” featuring a cast of curmudgeonly old men running the nation’s Capitol. No offense, but sometimes, Washington, D.C., looks like a nursing home cosplaying “House of Cards.” Seriously, no offense.
2. Afghanistan
Who remembers what happened three years ago? (Honestly, who remembers what happened three days ago?) Well, apparently, a lot of Americans do. On the third anniversary of the U.S. military’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, voters overwhelmingly ranked President Biden’s handling of the fiasco as “poor” (46%) or, more moderately, “fair” (17%). Just 7% characterized his performance as “excellent.” I can only imagine what those 7% thought about his debate performance.
3. Tax Cuts
Tax cuts are notoriously difficult to explain. Or, more precisely, they are incredibly easy to distort. Across-the-board tax cuts are often described as benefiting only the top 1% (who already pay more in income taxes than the bottom 95% combined). Americans remain fiercely divided about this topic. Nevertheless, by a narrow margin of 41% to 37%, voters still believe that ending Donald Trump’s tax cuts would increase taxes for all Americans, despite claims that the former president’s policy was “a gift to the super-rich”
The moral of the story is that no one likes paying taxes. And to the extent that either party can twist their opponents’ tax policy for political gain, it’s a safe bet to assume they will.
4. Back to School
Is that Bing Crosby singing? “And Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again.”
Apparently, there’s more truth to the ol’ Der Bingle’s Christmas classic than we realized.
This August, 58% of parents with school-aged kids report feeling happy that their children are going back to school. The same number (57%) say their children are excited to return.
I give it two weeks before many of these same parents appear on social media complaining about indoctrination(!!) in the classroom. Be careful what you wish for, parents. Perhaps we should not be so eager to throw our kids to the wolves.
Conclusion
Well, folks, that was this week’s mood check. Was it as miscellaneous as promised?
Now, armed with these breaking stats about your fellow voters, you’re all set to contribute to the national dialogue about the election. Plus, as an *added bonus,* you can dazzle your friends with your impressive stash of obscure political facts. (Just be careful. If your friends also read this blog, your trivia might land you in the “boring fact-spouting” category. Use your newfound knowledge wisely — unless, of course, you want to end up that person at parties who talks about voter turnout trends instead of, you know, actual fun stuff.)
Stay tuned to the Convention of States blog for next week’s polling!
