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.

Simon Rosenberg @SimonWDC

My friend @GavinNewsom is on to something here. Now that Republicans are proposing THE DEATH PENALTY for women who have abortions it would be wrong for any of us, incl the media, to describe this movement as pro-life. https://t.co/YQs8APbiwy

Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom

They. Are. Not. Pro. Life. https://t.co/pzK6xFN6vE

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

David Frum @davidfrum

.@SimonWDC is the analyst who correctly predicted that 2022 would not be a red wave

Greg Sargent @ThePlumLineGS

"That DeSantis may have blown it by lurching too far right has begun to take hold in the media...For all those Rs hoping DeSantis would be a reasonable and capable alternative to Trump this has been a very bad week." @SimonWDC on DeSantis' terrible start: https://t.co/NrMILnEjRx

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