Thomas B. Edsall reports in his column at The New York Times that public attitudes about the redistribution of wealth have taken a conservative turn in a number of recent surveys. While some may argue that this indicates Dems should moderate their policies in a conservative direction, it could also be taken as a challenge to better educate the public about proposals to spur a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Political consultant Matt L. Barron explains at The Hill why Democrats should pay more attention to rural voters.
The good news for Hillary Clinton at this juncture, according to Kyle Kondik and Larry J. Sabato of The Crystal Ball is that she is the undisputed Democratic front-runner for President in 2016, with no “second-tier” opposition in sight. The bad news is that she is the biggest, earliest target her adversaries could hope for. If her front-runnership holds up, Dems could benefit significantly by not having a divisive primary season. But the GOP will have the advantage of highly-focused, Hillary-bashing message repetition over a long period of time, and their nominee could benefit from battle-testing and party unity based on weakness-eliminating competition.
UK politics appears as divided as our own, but Labour seems to have some serious mo — even in Thatcher’s old stronghold, reports Dave Hill at The Guardian.
Aamer Madhani makes a strong case that voter turnout the recent election in Ferguson is more cause for concern for progressives than celebration.
At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Greg Bluestein reports on the emerging Democratic majority — in Georgia: “I sometimes feel like Georgia flies under the radar,” said Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress. “But things are changing there so quickly.”…The analysis was done by the Center for American Progress, the American Enterprise Institute and William H. Frey from the Brookings Institute…shows that Georgia could become a majority-minority state in 2025 and that minorities could outnumber whites among eligible voters by 2036…A narrow majority of students in Georgia’s public schools are now non-white and the data show that the proportion of white children could diminish to about 30 percent by 2060…”Blacks have more proclivity to vote in one direction than Hispanics or Asians,” said Teixeira. “It’s definitely changing the character. And one thing that will really make a huge difference in Georgia is if white voters vote more liberally. You don’t need much of a shift in the white vote for there to be a tipping point.” Bluestein’s article has nifty charts also.
The moral case for a gas tax hike is clear in terms of the environment and the need to fund transportation upgrades. But the political case is more problematic — especially for Dems. Janel Forte of Medill News Service explains why.
My hunch is that the headline for Nate Cohn’s upshot post is half-right that “Big Money From Super PACs Is Eroding the Power of Parties” — in the sense that the GOP has benefitted far more from super PACs. Cohn’s point is more about insider party “elites” losing their kingmaker power to the uber-PACs.
Will some wealthy Democrat please give this young man a lot of money?