A new Marquette University poll found that 71% of respondents opposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico with only 29% saying they were in favor of the change.

For the first time in decades, the Republicans now lead the Democrats in Nevada voter registration, the Nevada Independent reports.

Charlie Cook: “It used to be that a candidate with some combination of personality, charm, a good story, hard work, and good fortune could win in a state with strong partisan leanings in the opposite direction.”

“Now, that is harder and harder in gubernatorial elections and nearly impossible in Senate races. Federal races and the issues that naturally arise in them are easily nationalized, making it difficult to defy that gravitational pull of partisanship.”

Semafor: “Republicans and Democrats are pulling further apart, new Gallup research suggests, as the share of Americans who identify as moderate has declined over time.”

“Among Republicans, 77% described themselves as conservative in 2024, including 24% who said they were very conservative — both of which are highs since Gallup started polling the question three decades ago. Meanwhile, 55% of Democrats identified as liberal, including 19% who reported being very liberal — also both highs.”

“Overall, 37% of respondents described themselves as conservative and 25% as liberal; 34% say they’re moderate, down from a high of 43% in the 1990s.”

Employee engagement — the involvement and enthusiasm employees feel toward their work and workplace — is at a 10-year low, according to a new Gallup survey.

Derek Thompson: “Americans are now spending more time alone than ever. It’s changing our personalities, our politics, and even our relationship to reality.”

“Day to day, hour to hour, we are choosing this way of life—­its comforts, its ready entertainments. But convenience can be a curse … Over the past few months, I’ve spoken with psychologists, political scientists, sociologists, and technologists about America’s anti-social streak. Although the particulars of these conversations differed, a theme emerged: The individual preference for solitude, scaled up across society and exercised repeatedly over time, is rewiring America’s civic and psychic identity. And the consequences are far-reaching.”

Michael Mann and Peter Hotez identify climate change, pandemics, and anti-science disinformation as the gravest perils to human civilization.

“Over the past decade, many of us in the scientific community have come to appreciate the existential threat we face today—a threat unlike any we’ve witnessed since the days of the U.S. and Soviet Cold War in the last half of the twentieth century. While even today the specter of nuclear annihilation remains, especially given the escalation of hot wars in Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Iran, we now face entirely new twenty-first-century forces that place the future of humankind in even greater peril.”

Gallup: “Majorities of U.S. adults think 2025 will be a year of political conflict, economic difficulty, international discord, increasing power for China and Russia, and a rising federal budget deficit.”

Annie Lowrey: “Exit polls indicate that nearly half of union households voted Republican in 2024, up from 43 percent in 2016 and 37 percent in 2000. Other polling shows that Trump commanded a 26-point lead among white voters without a college degree in union homes, up nine points since 2020. Conversely, Democratic support dropped 35 percentage points among Latino voters in union households, and also waned among Black union voters.”

“These trends are part of a long, slow tectonic electoral realignment. This century, the country has become less polarized in income terms, with Democrats gaining among coastal elites and Republicans among the working class. In the past decade, it has also become less racially polarized, with Black, Asian, and Latino voters shifting red. And education has become a much stronger predictor of a person’s partisanship. Democrats now dominate among the college-educated, and Republicans dominate among white people without a degree.”

“The Republican coalition has become more diverse, while the Democrats have seen their working-class base—the working-class base that delivered them election after election in the 20th century—walk away.”

A new AP-NORC poll finds just 39% of Democrats approve of celebrities piping up on political issues — but only 11% of Republicans and 12% of independents (24% for the whole sample).

It’s the same with pro athletes: 39% of Democrats approve of them speaking up — but just 16% of Republicans and 15% of independents (26% overall).

Wall Street Journal: “This past year showed that the progressive politics that dominated most industrialized countries over the past two decades or more is shifting to the right, fueled by working-class anxieties over the economy and immigration, and growing fatigue with issues from climate change to identity politics.”

“The return of Donald Trump to the White House is the most dramatic and important example—but it is far from the only one.”

“Across Europe, where economic growth has largely stalled, conservatives and populist right-wing parties are making unprecedented gains. Three-quarters of governments in the European Union are either led by a right-of-center party or are ruled by a coalition that includes at least one.”

A new Gallup poll finds 19% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S., slightly lower than the 22% to 26% readings in recent months and the lowest since July.

Charlie Sykes: “America’s politicians have an age problem, and the issue seems especially acute among congressional Democrats. The prevalence of older politicians can arguably make the elected class less relevant to younger voters and make it more difficult for new voices to rise in politics. But at its core, this is an issue of honesty: Didn’t the American people have a right to know that Biden was struggling? Didn’t Texans deserve to know about Granger? And if either of them was being lied to by those supporting them, didn’t they themselves deserve the truth too?”

“Eventually, Biden did bow out—and one consequence is that the next president of the United States will, like Biden, be 82 years old at the end of his term.”

Nate Silver: “As Sean Trende pointed out on X, it hasn’t exactly been the best century for the expert class. Begin with the response to September 11 — the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, which were supported by bipartisan majorities. Then the financial crisis and the bank bailouts. Then Brexit and the election of Trump. Then the pandemic: what was supposed to be a triumph of management for a technocratic elite instead wound up as a worst-of-all-worlds scenario with prolonged restrictions and school closures and 7 million dead — from a virus possibly caused by sloppy scientific research practices. Then massive inflation, which was supposed to be a thing of the past. Throw in here, if you like, ‘wokeness’ and how it’s eroded trust in higher education and triggered a cultural backlash.”

New York Times: “Our analysis suggests partisanship itself, intentional or not, plays a powerful role when Americans uproot and find a new home. And their very personal decisions about where to resettle help power the churn of migration that is continuously reshaping American life at the neighborhood level and contributing to a sense that Americans are siloed in echo chambers, online and in their daily lives.”

“It also has real stakes for our elections: Political scientists say the more partisan a district or state becomes, the less a candidate needs to woo voters from the other party — or, after winning, govern on their behalf.”

A USA Today analysis of the nation’s 3,113 counties shows “a striking realignment since 2012 that has intensified the partisan leanings in states across the country, leaving only a handful where the outcome of the Nov. 5 presidential election remains in doubt.”

“The hardening of the country’s political lines has contributed to other consequences, too, including one-party control of the governorship and state legislature in 40 of the 50 states. That has led to a patchwork of sharply divergent laws across the country − even between neighboring states − on abortion rights, transgender care, the public-health response to the pandemic and other controversial issues.”

“A new trend has emerged in American politics: The very youngest voters — 18-to-24-year-olds — say they’re more conservative than the cohort that’s just older,” according to the latest Harvard Youth Poll.

“This new trend — which is true for both genders and emerged only in the last few years — is especially pronounced with men.”