A new Grinnell College/Selzer poll finds 52% of Americans believe democracy is facing a “major threat.”

Gallup: “Women in the U.S. remain largely dissatisfied with the treatment of their gender in society, do not think there is gender equality in job opportunities and favor affirmative action programs for women.”

“Conversely, majorities of men are satisfied with the treatment of women in society and think women and men in the U.S. have equal job opportunities.”

Nicholas Eberstadt: “In theory, it should be perfectly possible for a modern society not only to maintain prosperity but to increase it steadily in the face of pervasive population aging and demo­graphic stagnation or depopulation. Whether the United States can in practice continue to flourish in the face of such trends is another question. The formula by which the U.S. ascended to its current status of the world’s wealthiest society and sole superpower was predicated on over two centuries of continuous and exceptional population growth, unique among Western countries in tempo and scale.”

“Today, America’s population is two and a half times larger than on the eve of World War II (1940), three and a half times larger than in the lead-up to World War I (1910), ten times larger than just before the Civil War (1860), and 300 million persons more populous than that antebellum nation.”

“But that old familiar formula is in trouble today. It is no longer clear that the U.S. can count on indefinite geometric population growth to power its way into the future. Sooner or later, continuing American population growth of any kind may not be in the cards, either.”

Gallup: “Americans have shifted back to favoring a more hands-off approach for government in addressing the nation’s problems after a rare endorsement of a more active role last year. Currently, 52% say the government is doing too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, while 43% want the government to do more to solve the country’s problems.”

“In contrast, a record-high 54% of U.S. adults last year said the government should do more to solve problems.”

Karen Tumulty: “A raft of evidence suggests that female voters, whose engagement and activism fueled the gains that Democrats made during Donald Trump’s presidency, are increasingly tuning out politics.”

“In one survey conducted in May by the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, nearly half of women in key swing states said they were ‘paying less attention to what happens in Washington’ than they were when Trump was in the White House. This was particularly true among female Biden voters who are independents, under the age of 35, college graduates and city dwellers. Focus groups that American Bridge 21st Century conducted in August with women in Pennsylvania and Arizona found much the same thing.”

A new Joint Venture Silicon Valley poll finds that 55% of the residents living in the San Francisco Bay Area say they are considering moving out of the area permanently.

Of those who were likely to leave, 84% cited the cost of living as a major reason and 62% cited the quality of life.

The majority of Americans polled in a new CBS News survey said they haven’t sent a handwritten letter in the mail in over five years.

Dan Balz: “For the past decade the state has been an incubator for the kind of tribal politics and deep divisions that characterize civic life in Washington and much of the rest of the nation. While Wisconsin has been closely divided for a long time — four of the last six presidential elections were decided by less than a percentage point — the widening gulf between the two parties exposed in 2011 foreshadowed the extent to which American politics would come to focus more on the extremes rather than the middle of the political spectrum.”

“This has made Wisconsin not a purple state, as many people suggest, but two states in one — the first comprising a few heavily populated blue enclaves and the second a red sea of rural, small-town and suburban geography that surrounds those blue pockets.”

A new Gallup poll finds just 44% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in people who hold or are running for public office, rivaling the record low of 42% from 2016.

Meanwhile, only 55% express a similar level of confidence in the judgments of the American people under the democratic system, the lowest Gallup has measured to date.

A new University of Virginia Center for Politics survey looks at the persistent divisions between Trump and Biden voters:

• Majorities — often large majorities — of both Biden and Trump voters express some form of distrust for voters, elected officials, and media sources they associate with the other side.
• A strong majority of Trump voters see no real difference between Democrats and socialists, and a majority of Biden voters at least somewhat agree that there is no real difference between Republicans and fascists.
• Significant numbers of both Trump and Biden voters show a willingness to consider violating democratic tendencies and norms if needed to serve their priorities.
• Roughly 4 in 10 (41%) of Biden and half (52%) of Trump voters at least somewhat agree that it’s time to split the country, favoring blue/red states seceding from the union.

“New research shows girls are being socialized early in life to believe they don’t belong in politics,” The 19th reports.

“A research article published this month in the scholarly journal American Political Science Review found that young children perceive politics to be a space dominated by men. Girls’ perception of this is enforced as they grow older.”

Dan Balz: “It may be time to revisit the old axiom from Tip O’Neill, the former Democratic House speaker from Massachusetts, who famously said that all politics are local. These days, as the California recall election showed, most politics are national.”

Christopher Ingraham: “A new YouGov survey conducted on behalf of a democracy watchdog group finds that 66% of Republicans living in the South say they’d support seceding from the United States to join a union with other Southern states.”

“Secession is actually gaining support among Southern Republicans: back in January and February, 50% said they’d support such a proposal.”

Meanwhile, conservative Ben Shapiro floated the idea of a “friendly separation” of certain states away from the union.

A new CNN poll finds 56% of Americans feel democracy is under attack in this country and 51% say it is likely that elected officials will successfully overturn the results of a future election because their party did not win.

In addition, nearly all Americans feel that democracy in the US is at least being tested: 93% total say that democracy is either under attack (56%) or being tested but not under attack (37%). Just 6% say that American democracy is in no danger.

For members: Democrats Must Make Democracy an Issue In 2022

A new NBC News/Generation Lab poll of incoming college students across the country finds 92% of the freshmen — attending either two-year or four-year institutions — say they’re optimistic about their personal lives, including 28% who are “super” optimistic.