Happy Sunday and welcome to the usual thread just for subscribers. Today’s bullet points:
This week’s newsletter, about Democrats and the midterms, will go out in a few hours.
I’ve got a couple things brewing on public opinion toward voter suppression (eg how the GOP can pursue restrictions regardless of public opposition), on the filibuster, and on polls about immigration.
I’ve been thinking more about what “trusting the public” means in an age of heightened identity and misinformation, similar to this post.
Below, please leave your comments on what you’d like to see me write about in the coming days/weeks. I’m always looking for stuff to slot into the schedule.
There has been some reporting on Biden's pace of executive orders compared to Trump and Obama during the first few weeks of Biden's Presidency. I think it could be interesting to see what kind of executive orders did Trump and Obama sign and whether those executive orders were upheld by the courts. Will Biden's executive orders be upheld?
This is a great question. I’ll answer more in a future post, but what I’ll say now is that the increasing use of executive orders as legislative action has become rarer makes policy change “easier” and more consequential, and not always in a good way. Of course, prime ministers have similar patterns, but tend to face a few more barriers to action and usually don’t jump so from left to right with as much magnitude as we see in the US today.
In re midterms I am curious about GOP senators who may be and who are retiring - Grassley, Johnson, Portman, Burr, Toomey - and how much lift the Democrats would have in any of these states. I sense that Ohio might be a target, but have no data yet. Maybe Pennsylvania - dunno. The key question to my mind is how much do the Republicans lose by if they don't achieve voter suppression? I am willing to bet that the GOP data wonks know the answer to this question.
Hi Elliott,
There has been some reporting on Biden's pace of executive orders compared to Trump and Obama during the first few weeks of Biden's Presidency. I think it could be interesting to see what kind of executive orders did Trump and Obama sign and whether those executive orders were upheld by the courts. Will Biden's executive orders be upheld?
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/03/963380189/with-28-executive-orders-signed-president-biden-is-off-to-a-record-start
I hope everything is well,
Elliot
Hey Elliot,
This is a great question. I’ll answer more in a future post, but what I’ll say now is that the increasing use of executive orders as legislative action has become rarer makes policy change “easier” and more consequential, and not always in a good way. Of course, prime ministers have similar patterns, but tend to face a few more barriers to action and usually don’t jump so from left to right with as much magnitude as we see in the US today.
Hello, Elliott,
In re midterms I am curious about GOP senators who may be and who are retiring - Grassley, Johnson, Portman, Burr, Toomey - and how much lift the Democrats would have in any of these states. I sense that Ohio might be a target, but have no data yet. Maybe Pennsylvania - dunno. The key question to my mind is how much do the Republicans lose by if they don't achieve voter suppression? I am willing to bet that the GOP data wonks know the answer to this question.