Notes From The Week (March 17th, 2023)
Some Things I Saw and Am Thinking About This Week
Testing out this approach for a possible Friday wrap up. Let me know what you think.
A New Politics Around Women and Families - As I write about in our “Get to 55” memo Democrats need to spend time exploring a new politics emerging from the GOP’s escalating abortion extremism and ongoing denigration of women. Consider this new CDC report about outrageous levels of maternal death here in the US. And in South Carolina Republicans are proposing THE DEATH penalty for women who have abortions. We need to find a way to go on offense here, and become the clear champion of women and families.
GOPer Chris Sununu Warns GOP About Losing Younger Voters - The potential GOP candidate for President gave quite an interview this week, ripping into the MAGA wing of the GOP on many issues. But what caught my eye was his warning about the GOP’s struggles with young people, something at the core of our Get to 55 strategy:
Sununu: “I do believe that as hard as ‘24 is going to be, if Republicans don't understand the generational gap that we have right now, ‘28, ‘30, ‘32 and 2036 are going to be disastrous for the Republican party. You have to start building those bridges today.
“We can get that next generation of Republican voter back on the team, [but] a lot of those younger people are disenfranchised right now... the younger Republican priority is very different than the [priorities] of my generation and above. So let's hear them. Let's see what they want.”
Biden’s Approval Ticks Up - Biden averaged 46% this week in the four polls on 538’s Biden job approval tracker. If it holds will be his highest rating since Sept, 2021. Something to watch.
Xi to Moscow - The visit Of China’s Xi to Moscow next week is going to be an interesting moment for the Anti-China, Pro-Russia MAGA crowd. It also may become understood as a major moment in this new Post-Post-Cold War era we are entering where the opposition to the US led global order has become far more significant. As I wrote in my essay on DeSantis backing Putin this week:
One of the things which drove me to launch Hopium Chronicles is that I believe we are struggling here in the US to understand the nature of the conflict we now find ourselves in with Russia, China and others who want to challenge the global order America imagined and built after WWII. At some point - Putin’s attack on the US in 2016, Trump’s bowing to Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2021 - the post Cold War era ended and a new geopolitical age began. We have left a period which saw the extension of the American global order to the entire world, and are entering one which there are now serious challenges to that order. We are entering a period of conflict, not peace, I am afraid. And we have to update our understandings and strategies to ensure freedom and democracy prevail aganst these new challenges (this is the central narrative of my With Democrats Things Get Better presentation - hope you will check it out).
My DeSantis Commentary Got Some Nice Shoutouts
Happy St. Paddy’s Day all. Have a good weekend, and thanks for being part of this new Hopium Chronicles community. We are off to a great start - Simon
I like the Friday round up! I wish I could commit to another subscription to subsidize your work. Between streaming services, the Bulwark, other Substack subs that beat you to it & monthly donations to my Senators, all the D-groups + local MA stuff, I’m maxed out. I really appreciate being able to comment for free & will continue to pay attention. Slainte!
The only way today's Republicans are going to get any really serious part of the "youth vote" is for them to stop being who they are now. The likelihood of that happening any time between now and 2036 is only slightly less than the likelihood the earth will reverse the direction of rotation on its axis.
That is, unless Democrats blow it, but more and more the party is showing it can too walk and chew gum at the same time, so there's hope.