Wall Street Journal: “The socialists, it turns out, are highly social.”
“In chapters across the country, they enjoy DSA barbecues, beach days, running clubs, happy hours, karaoke, prom nights, transgender rights and bodily autonomy game nights, reading groups, Marxist study circles and more. The DSA is even moving into affairs of the heart with a recent ‘Socialist Speed Dating’ event in New York’s Lower East Side.”
“People 65 and older now outnumber children ages 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history, according to a new report by the U.S. Census,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: A global plunge in fertility — demographers’ term for the number of children being born — and increased longevity are creating a demographic inversion that’s projected to deepen for decades.”
A new American University Sine Institute of Policy & Politics poll finds 70 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they weren’t proud of “where America is heading as a nation.”
NBC News: “For more than a decade, one of Trump’s greatest strengths has been the devotion of his base — voters who were reluctant to criticize him and quick to defend him in public settings. Many of them have lost or strained friendships with their vehement support and insistence that he is virtually infallible.”
“But in late-August conversations with Trump voters across eight of the nation’s most competitive congressional districts, running along Interstate 80 from central New Jersey to Omaha, Nebraska, there was a new willingness among Trump voters to voice their critiques on issues including inflation, the war with Iran and the White House ballroom construction.”
Rana Foroohar: “People increasingly blame large corporations for the sense that they have ever less control over their own lives.”
The Economist: “In just the past two months Donald Trump has described unnamed Democratic candidates as ‘jihadists’ and ‘radical lunatics.’ He has mocked opponents’ weight and appearance, said he hated Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, and referred to James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, as ‘Tal-a-freak-o.’ He has also attacked former Republican allies, calling Tucker Carlson and others ‘losers,’ while describing Marjorie Taylor Greene as ‘neurotic.'”
“The president’s rhetoric is insulting, combative and angry. Of course, he is hardly the first politician to cultivate outrage. Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice-president, delighted in attacking the press. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, was a master of ginning up resentment. For decades righteous indignation has been the resting state of Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont. But new research suggests that American politics is angrier than ever.”
Semafor: “Seventeen percent of American adults say they smoke marijuana, tied with the high notched in 2023. That’s a big shift from 2013, the year Gallup started polling the question, when just 7% said they used pot. A record 15% of U.S. adults also say they use edibles.”
“Higher education is hitting a demographic cliff. After years of growth, the pipeline of 18-year-olds is dwindling—a result of lower birthrates,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The largest number of Americans born in a single year arrived on campus in the autumn of 2025, and now a falloff is looming. College enrollments are forecast to drop 13% by 2041… In some parts of the country—especially the Midwest and the Northeast—the declines have already begun.”
Robin Givhan: “The MAGA aesthetic has seeped into all the nooks and crannies of the culture as well as here in diplomatic Washington. You could just as easily find the look on the runway in Ronkonkoma, New York, where, in the fall of 2024, conservative women came to admire red-white-and-blue-bedazzled jewelry and skirts depicting the drafting of the Declaration of Independence at the America First Patriotic Designer Showcase…”
“MAGA is a style rooted in extremes. It is hostile to nuance and diversity. It views body positivity as a sign of weakness—but regards the president’s puffy, aging body through an exceptionally kind lens. And it believes gender fluidity is something to be stamped out.”
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said Sunday a ‘generational tidal wave’ of millennial voters is reshaping the electorate in the wake of recent primary elections,” ABC News reports.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “Millennials are not punk kids anymore. We’re grown adults with mortgages and kids, and that generation is starting to be decisive at the polls, and there is anger at being ignored, sidelined, having our economic futures mortgaged by the generations that came before us on everything from the economy to climate, and we’re taking the reins.”
CNBC: Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t “ruled out” running for president or Senate in 2028.
The Economist: “Running as an independent is sufficiently difficult that, at least historically, few politicians have deemed it wise to do so. Independent candidates lack the campaign infrastructure of an established party and, in many states, must collect more signatures to earn a place on a ballot. However aspiring politicians now face a shifting set of odds.”
“Last year 45% of Americans identified as independent, the highest share since at least 1988, according to Gallup. Those independents are, in turn, five percentage points more likely to lean Democratic than Republican. Centrists who might have formerly identified as Democrats are taking note.”
“Young Latinos are abandoning organized religion at a faster rate than any other demographic in the United States,” Axios reports.
“The declining religious affiliation of Latinos ages 18 to 29 — particularly among Catholics — is challenging long-held assumptions that their explosive growth would boost traditional religious values in American culture.”
“Politicians are increasingly abandoning scripted language and publicly cursing as profanity becomes a more common political tool,” Axios reports.
“The shift suggests politicians are using profanity intentionally to project authenticity, signal confrontation and distance themselves from traditional Washington norms.”
“Americans’ confidence in 14 of the nation’s core institutions is at or near all-time lows, according to new Gallup polling,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: Trust in America’s institutions is being pulled apart by a widening partisan gap, with Republicans far more confident than Democrats in the Trump 2.0 era of mass societal disruption.”
“Patriotism met partisanship as America celebrated its 250th birthday,” the New York Times reports.
“President Trump used July 4 to mock the Democratic Party and assail his political opponents as ‘evil,’ while Democrats seen as potential 2028 presidential candidates responded with speeches that cast his presidency as a betrayal of American ideals.”
Jim VandeHei: “We’re alive at the single greatest moment in U.S. and human history. By a lot.”
“It’s not even close, by almost every empirical measure. We live longer, better, richer, healthier and freer than those before us.”
“Yes, we screw a lot up. Always have. Always will. But nothing bothers me more than the widespread pessimism and plummeting patriotism — when it should be a time of great hope and possibility.”
“To me, that yawning gap between our reality and how people feel about it is among the biggest macro issues facing us.”
The Economist: “These are unsettling times, even for the rich. Many of those wealthy enough to move abroad for low taxes or their physical or political security are less sure these days about settling in Dubai or Hong Kong, even America or Britain. Dry your eyes, however, for plenty of governments remain eager to take in foreigners with money and skills. And a growing industry of trusted advisers stands ready to help the rich relocate.”
“For these consiglieri, business is booming. Last year more than 140,000 millionaires migrated, the most on record, reckons New World Wealth, a research firm; this year it expects the figure to rise to 165,000.”
“Most Americans believe the country has moved away from its founding principles as the nation prepares for its big 250th anniversary,” a new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll finds.
“Eighty-three percent of U.S. adults feel America has strayed from the ideals the country was founded on two-and-a-half centuries ago.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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