Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “In 41 of the 50 states, every statewide executive office is held by the same party—a striking indicator of the scope of political polarization today. In another six states, one side has a clear edge.”

“This leaves only three states that have a relatively balanced mix of Republican and Democratic statewide officeholders: Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina.”

Gallup: “The percentage of U.S. adults who anticipate high-quality lives in five years declined to 59.2% in 2025, the lowest level since measurement began nearly two decades ago.”

The Edelman Trust Barometer finds that 70% of respondents across 28 nations now are hesitant or unwilling to trust someone who has different values, information sources, approaches to societal problems, or backgrounds than them.

This majority holds across income levels, gender, age groups, developing and developed markets.

Andrew Trousdale and Erik Larson: “Americans today accumulate hundreds, even thousands, of Facebook ‘friends’ and Instagram followers. Yet 35% report having less than three close friends and 17% report having none. A quarter of Americans lack social and emotional support. We’re supposedly more connected than ever, but according to the Surgeon General we are facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation.”

“It’s tempting to believe that smartphones and social media were introduced to an ideal society and ruined everything. But the social problems we face today — while linked to contemporary digital technologies — are deeper and more nuanced than that. They originated from 20th century technological and cultural forces that also brought extraordinary benefits.”

The U.S. population could decline this year for the first time in American history, Bloomberg reports.

Scientific American: “The average American born in 2024 is now expected to live to age 79. That life expectancy is more than a half-year longer than it was in 2023 and greater than in any prior year going back to 1900.”

“It was still lower than that of most other developed countries, however.”

“President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration contributed to a year-to-year drop in the nation’s growth rate as the U.S. population reached 341.8 million people in 2025,” the AP reports.

“The 0.5% growth rate for 2025 was a sharp drop from 2024’s almost 1% growth rate, which was the highest since 2001 and was fueled by immigration.”

A new YouGov/Economist survey shows that 71 percent of Americans think the United States is “out of control,” while only 18 percent think the country is “under control.”

Wall Street Journal: “The CBO projects the population growing from 349 million this year to 364 million in 2056, and then starting to shrink. A year ago, the CBO projected the U.S. would reach 372 million people in 30 years; in September it cut that forecast to 367 million.”

“The slowdown reflects the aging population, declining fertility and President Trump’s immigration policies. The U.S. has come to rely on immigration as an important source of growth. Deaths are expected to exceed births in 2030; in September the CBO had projected this could start by 2031.”

A new Gallup Poll finds 24% of Americans satisfied and 74% dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country.

“It’s not a glass ceiling, it’s a marble ceiling.”

— Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in an interview with USA Today, on a woman becoming president.

New Yorker: “In the wake of President Trump’s re-election, the number of aggrieved Americans seeking a new life abroad appears to be rising. The Netherlands offers one way out.”

“As he shook President Barack Obama’s hand and pulled him in for what he thought was a private aside, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an explicit message: ‘This is a big fucking deal.’ The remark, overheard on live microphones at a 2010 ceremony for the Affordable Care Act, caused a sensation because open profanity from a national leader was unusual at the time,” the AP reports.

“More than 15 years later, vulgarity is now in vogue… Leaders in both parties are seemingly in a race now to the verbal gutter.”

A civil liberties group says the U.S. is showing signs of undergoing a “rapid authoritarian shift” as civic freedoms in the country decline following President Trump’s return to the White House, Time reports.

A new Pew Research poll finds just 17% of Americans now say they trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (15%).

Frustration has long been Americans’ dominant emotion toward the federal government and 49% say they feel frustrated. Another 26% say they are angry, and 23% say they are basically content.