Jim Bohn

Another dismal poll regarding the leadership abilities of Joe Biden.  This time from NBC News. 

NBC News polled one thousand adults on their views of Joe Biden and the state of the country.  The result show widespread dissatisfaction among Americans with the President and the state of the country. 

Some results:

• Just one in three Americans view Joe Biden as being a good or very good commander in chief while 40 percent of Americans give Biden a very poor rating. 
• Only 32 percent give Biden a good or very good rating on his ability to handle a crisis. Note that this poll was taken mid-January before the President’s disastrous press conference in which he conceded to Russia’s Vladimir Putin that it was OK if Russia made minor incursions into the Ukraine only to go into damage control mode the next day.
• Less than one in four Americans—24 percent—view Joe Biden as a unifier down from 40 percent in January 2021.  In contrast, 42 percent now view him a very divisive president.  

Americans are rightly disappointed as the corporate media portrayed Biden as a moderate not as a creature of the progressive left.  

Detailed poll results concerning the Biden Administration appear at the end of this post. 

Americans have also turned increasingly pessimistic on the direction of the country.   Seventy-two percent see the United States on the wrong track. 

The wrong track under Biden is now higher than at any time during the Trump Administration. 

Inflation is a key concern of Americans with 61 percent saying that prices are going up faster than wages, only 7 percent feel that their paychecks are staying ahead of inflation.

Here at GOUSA we advocate for real solutions to the challenges that confront America.  Our rating system rates politicians on their support for issues that majorities of Americans agree with.

Young people were pivotal to the election of Biden in the 2020 election.  Now young Americans have become so dissatisfied with the Biden Administration that his approval levels among the young is at or above that of older voters.

If only voters over the age of 40 voted in the 2020 election, Donald Trump would have won in a landslide and the Republicans would have massive majorities in the House and Senate.

Now young Americans are turning on Biden. 

A January 2022 poll by CBS News and YouGov shows the depth of the dissatisfaction of young Americans with the performance of the Biden Administration.  It’s so bad that disapproval rates among young people are at the same level as older Americans

Results appear below:

Biden’s 42 percent approval rate among Generation Z is no different that the 40-44 percent among Americans over the age of 45.

And Biden’s approval rate for his handling of the economy among Generation Z is more than 10 points lower than Americans over age 45. 

In some ways this is little surprise.  Young people who are just starting their careers are feeling the effect of slow job growth.  The U.S. economy currently has 4 million fewer jobs today than in 2019 and many of those missing jobs would have been filled by young people.

Moreover, the Biden Administration offers little reason for hope among the young.

Their paychecks are being eaten away by the inflationary policies of the Biden Administration.

And young people should be bedeviled by the fear that they are the ones that will be stuck with the bill for Biden’s massive deficits and spending programs that benefit mostly special interests.

Does this portend a permanent change in the voting preference of young people?  Perhaps.  

GOUSA stands for freedom of expression.  In his annual speech to ambassadors to the Holy See, Pope Francis specifically denounced cancel culture as a threat to our humanity.

GOUSA opposes cancel culture in its many forms.  We oppose government censorship.  That’s part of personal opportunity.  We believe in civil rights and respect for others.  That’s part of social opportunity.  And we believe in free expression on campus.  That’s part of educational opportunity.

Important news from the Vatican.  Pope Francis came out against those who seek to silence others in his annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corp.    

The full transcript of Francis’s speech is available at the Vatican website.  The section on cancel culture appears below:

“As a result, agendas are increasingly dictated by a mindset that rejects the natural foundations of humanity and the cultural roots that constitute the identity of many peoples. As I have stated on other occasions, I consider this a form of ideological colonization, one that leaves no room for freedom of expression and is now taking the form of the “cancel culture” invading many circles and public institutions. Under the guise of defending diversity, it ends up cancelling all sense of identity, with the risk of silencing positions that defend a respectful and balanced understanding of various sensibilities. A kind of dangerous “one-track thinking” [pensée unique] is taking shape, one constrained to deny history or, worse yet, to rewrite it in terms of present-day categories, whereas any historical situation must be interpreted in the light of a hermeneutics of that particular time, not that of today.“

Pope Francis also warned of the harmful effects on young people of isolation from the lockdowns and social media:

“The pandemic prevented many young people from attending school, to the detriment of their personal and social development.  Modern technology enabled many young people to take refuge in virtual realities that create strong psychological and emotional links but isolate them from others and the world around them, radically modifying social relationships.  In making this point, I in no way intend to deny the usefulness of technology and its products, which make it possible for us to connect with one another easily and quickly, but I do appeal urgently that we be watchful lest these instruments substitute for true human relationships at the interpersonal, familial, social and international levels. If we learn to isolate ourselves at an early age, it will later prove more difficult to build bridges of fraternity and peace. In a world where there is just ‘me’, it is difficult to make room for ‘us’“.

This is definitely not in line with the woke vision of big tech, corporate media and academia today.   We are glad that Francis has taken this stand and hope that others continue to stand up for freedom of expression and individuality in the face of the woke mob.

Nobel Prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier and law professor Jed Rubenfeld explain in the Wall Street Journal why vaccine mandates make no sense.  Will the Supreme Court figure this out?

“It would be irrational, legally indefensible and contrary to the public interest for government to mandate vaccines absent any evidence that the vaccines are effective in stopping the spread of the pathogen they target.  Yet that’s exactly what’s happening here.”

Very true.  Montagnier and Rubenfeld point out that there’s no evidence that vaccines do anything to stop the spread of the virus.  This is a fact acknowledged by the CDC itself:

“As CDC Director Rochelle Walensky put it last summer, the viral load in the noses and throats of vaccinated people infected with Delta is ‘indistinguishable’ from that of unvaccinated people, and ‘what [the vaccines] can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.’”

The legal basis for the mandates rests on the Court’s 1905 ruling in Jacobsen v. Massachusetts.  That case asked whether mandatory vaccinations against smallpox were unconstitutional.  Jacobsen turned on whether the vaccine would stop the spread of the disease.  The Court wrote:

“The possibility that the belief may be wrong, and that science may yet show it to be wrong, is not conclusive; for the legislature has the right to pass laws which, according to the common belief of the people, are adapted to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. In a free country, where the government is by the people, through their chosen representatives, practical legislation admits of no other standard of action, for what the people believe is for the common welfare must be accepted as tending to promote the common welfare, whether it does in fact or not.”   

By the CDC’s own admission, vaccines do nothing to prevent the spread of COVID.  Indeed, Montagnier and Rubenfeld write that there is evidence that vaccines make people more likely to contract the Omicron variant of the virus.    

“One preprint study found that after 30 days the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines no longer had any statistically significant positive effect against Omicron infection, and after 90 days, their effect went negative—i.e., vaccinated people were more susceptible to Omicron infection.  Confirming this negative efficacy finding, data from Denmark and the Canadian province of Ontario indicate that vaccinated people have higher rates of Omicron infection than unvaccinated people.“

So rather than stopping the spread as required by the reasoning of the Jacobsen court, vaccines may hasten the spread of the virus. 

There are two upsides to the Supreme Court case on vaccine mandates. 

One is that the justices may rule against the mandates.  That’s a possibility.

The other is that the case exposed the extent to which the media and government have exaggerated the risks from COVID.  That’s a certainty.

For instance, Justice Sotomayor famously stated that there were 100,000 children hospitalized for COVID.  The real number is about 3,000 and that includes kids hospitalized for other reasons that happened to have COVID.

Even the left-wing Washington Post gave the “wise Latina” four Pinocchios on that one. 

The ignorance of the liberal justices has made for excellent and well-deserved mocking material. 

Colleges and universities are supposed to be bastions of science and logic.  Simple calculations of risk show that young people have a near zero mortality risk from COVID.  Yet college students are subject to far harsher lockdown and testing requirements than even the very old.  This not only defies common sense.  It is permanently harming an entire generation.

Social scientists are well-aware of the scarring effect.  Trauma in the early stages of life have an impact on our lives many years in the future.  In a classic in the field of life course studies, sociologist Glen Elder found that men who came of age during the Great Depression were more likely to be withdrawn, cyclical and depressed many decades in the future.   

The COVID pandemic has been particularly hard on young Americans.  Like young people during the Great Depression, young people in America have been disproportionately harmed by job loss.  But young people today have the additional trauma from the hysteria that is gripping colleges and universities today.

One source of trauma is learning loss.  Two years into the pandemic, many colleges continue to conduct instruction through online learning.  Studies show that students at colleges that shifted to online learning had lower test scores than those who continued to learn on-campus. 

Another is the loss of ability to network and socialize with faculty and fellow students. 

But perhaps the most significant harm to young people is being traumatized by the constant fear mongering by college administrators.  According to a survey by BestColleges.com, 95 percent of college students say that they have experienced negative mental health symptoms as a result of COVID and 48 percent believe that mental health effects have negatively affected their education. 

Measures that have been taken by colleges are far out of line with the health risks to college students.  According to the CDC, the risk of death from COVID for Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 is 0.001 percent.  And colleges students are generally in good health so their risks are likely a small fraction of 0.001 percent. 

Yet at colleges like Boston’s Emerson, students are still confined to their rooms, at Georgetown subject to constant testing and confinement even though they don’t show symptoms and Yale University won’t allow students to eat off campus.  

The damage to the psyche and intellectual development of young people from these draconian measures are inflicting deep scars on the younger generations.  The effects have only begun to become apparent.  

Fauci tells MSNBC that the number of hospitalizations from COVID have been inflated.  Is his admission two years into the pandemic politically motivated? 

Speaking to MSNBC, Fauci admits that “if you look at the children that are hospitalized, many of them are hospitalized with COVID, as opposed to because of COVID.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYxKaZxFAcs

The reason is that COVID cases include anyone admitted who tests positive rather than people that are admitted because of symptoms associated with COVID. 

As Fauci explains, if you are admitted with a broken leg and you test positive upon admission, then you are counted toward the total number of hospitalizations with COVID.

Sound familiar?  Well, yes.  This is what those on the right have been saying all along.

Though Fauci makes this admission with respect to children, the math is the same with adults.  That is, hospitalization data inflates—likely wildly inflates—the number of people that are hospitalized because of COVID.

So why is Fauci attempting to change the narrative now.

Consider the following:

Inflating the numbers was politically useful at the beginning of the pandemic while Trump was in office.  It amped up the level of fear in the general public.

Big numbers for hospitalizations and deaths allowed Joe Biden and the Democrats to bludgeon Trump during the 2020 campaign. 

Inflating the numbers also increased the power of Fauci and the CDC as politicians of all stripes were willing to do give then whatever they asked for. 

Big numbers also benefitted the Democrats early in 2021 as the panic helped them ram through a $1.9 trillion spending bill that in fact had very little to do with the pandemic. 

But not big numbers are hurting the Democrats.  Big numbers suggest that Biden has failed to stem the pandemic as he had promised.

So the solution is to change the way the numbers are counted.  In this, case, to count hospitalizations and deaths the way that they should have been counted all along.

Watch for more attempts by Fauci and the Democrats to walk back the numbers.

Changing the way things are counted to fit political purposes is nothing new to politicians.  Why should the COVID numbers be any different?

You really do need a weathervane to tell which way the wind is blowing at the CDC as The Science® is changing by the minute.

Consider the ever-changing statements on vaccine mandates for airline travel as pointed out by Tyler Durden over at Zero Hedge (dates filled in):

Fauci 12/26: travel vax mandate is on the table…

Fauci 12/27: no travel vax mandate

Biden 12/28: travel vax mandate will happen when docs say

CDC Walensky 12/28 late: no travel vax mandate being discussed

Or consider the new quarantine guidance.  According to CNN:

“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for Covid-19 from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms — and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.  The CDC also shortened the recommended time for people to quarantine if they are exposed to the virus to a similar five days if they are vaccinated. People who are fully vaccinated and boosted may not need to quarantine at all, the CDC said.”

Got that?  People who have been boosted and have tested positive for COVID don’t need to quarantine at all.

We’ve been told for the past 21 months that the reason for quarantining is that (i) to avoid spreading the virus to others and (ii) that people who have been vaccinated could carry the virus.  So if you have tested positive, shouldn’t The Science® still require you to quarantine so you don’t spread it to others?.  Apparently not now but of course, that’s subject to change.

The simplest explanation for this is that now that the laptop class in the Acela corridor is getting the omicron virus (New York City is reporting the highest incidence rates) the rules need to be changed so that they don’t inconvenience the beautiful people.

Fasten you seat belts and watch for more twirling form the CDC in the coming weeks and months.

While politicians in the United States and Europe continue to spread panic and pursue authoritarian mandates and lockdowns, Japanese politicians are acting like statesmen, treating their countrymen like intelligent beings rather than sheep that need to be led.

The way that American politicians speak to us belies the contempt that they have in their hearts for the people of this country.  This is evident in the manner in which the American political class addresses COVID. 

While leaders of many other nations address their countryman as intelligent individuals capable of evaluating risks and taking appropriate measures, American politicians like Joe Biden constantly talk down to American citizens. 

Contrast the rhetoric of American politicians and government officials with those in Japan. 

The Japanese government offers a balanced view of vaccine risks and completely rejects mandates and discrimination based on vaccination status.   

From the Japan Ministry of Health website:

Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated.

The Prime Minister of Japan took a similar measured, adult tone in his address to the nation in which has also rejected mandatory vaccinations and urged people to avoid discrimination against the unvaccinated. 

From Prime Minister Kono’s speech:

Vaccines will never be administered without the recipient’s consent. We urge the public never to coerce vaccinations at the workplace or upon others around them, and never to treat those who have not received the vaccine in a discriminatory manner.

Contrast the measured, reasoned statements of Japanese officials with the near-hysterical rhetoric of Joe “dark winter” Biden and Anthony Fauci. 

Contrast also the rejection of mandates in Japan with the authoritarian requirements and restrictions imposed by Joe Biden, Charlie Baker and now Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.  These mandates demonstrate that politicians like Biden, Baker and Wu don’t believe that the American people are intelligent enough to make their own healthcare decisions.

Japan’s politicians and government officials offer and treat their countrymen with respect.  American politicians and government officials treat their countrymen with disdain. 

Hopefully the American people will soon tire of being talked down to and will find leaders that respect the intelligence and reason of the American public.  Until then we are lions led by donkeys.

New Wall Street Journal Poll shows that Hispanic voters are equally divided in terms of how they view the Democratic and Republican Parties.  

Hispanics are evenly divided in their support for Republicans and Democrats heading into the 2022 election.  The Wall Street Journal finds that 37 percent of Hispanic voters favor the Democrats, 37 percent favor the GOP with the rest undecided.  The split is similar to all voters (44 percent of the GOP versus 41 percent for the Democrats) though a larger percentage of Hispanics are undecided.

Hispanics are also equally divided in a hypothetical rematch between Trump and Biden.  From the WSJ:

“Hispanic voters were also evenly divided when asked about a hypothetical rematch in 2024 of the last presidential contenders, with 44% saying they would back President Biden and 43% supporting former President Donald Trump.  In 2020, Mr. Biden won 63% support among Hispanic voters, nearly 30 points more than Mr. Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a large survey of the presidential electorate.“

Nor do Hispanics care for Joe Biden as President.

“The results showed Hispanic voters differing little from the overall electorate in their political preferences.  Hispanic voters mirrored the overall voter pool, for example, when asked how Mr. Biden was handling his job.  Some 42% approved of the president’s job performance and 54% disapproved—in line with the 41% approval and 57% disapproval among the broader voting public.“

Currently, one in eight voters identify as Hispanic.

The realignment of Hispanics is logical.  The Democratic Party now exclusively focuses on issues that are of interests to elite, coastal whites.  Their agenda of CRT, big government, anti-Americanism, and authoritarian control is alien to middle- and working-class Americans.  Like other middle- and working-class Americans, Hispanic voters are interested in economic opportunity, public safety, individual freedom and education.  In short, the GOUSA Opportunity Agenda. 

Update: More here, and here. 

The Biden Administration remains curiously uncurious about the origins of the COVID virus.  That leaves it to other countries to ask the questions that the United States government should be asking.

Dr. Alina Chan, a researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Select Committee that the Wuhan lab is the “most likely origin of COVID” and that scientists willing to speak out about the lab leak theory have been suppressed.

From Wales Online which has a video of Dr. Chan’s testimony:

Dr Chan, said: “I think the lab origin is more likely than not. Right now it’s not safe for people who know about the origin of the pandemic to come forward. But we live in an era where there is so much information being stored that it will eventually come out.

“We have heard from many top virologists that a genetically engineered origin is reasonable and that includes virologists who made modifications to the first Sars virus.

“We know this virus has a unique feature, called the furin cleavage site, and without this feature there is no way this would be causing this pandemic.

“A proposal was leaked showing that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology were developing a pipeline for inserting novel furin cleavage sites. So, you find these scientists who said in early 2018 ‘I’m going to put horns on horses’ and at the end of 2019 a unicorn turns up in Wuhan city.”

Learning the truth about the origins of COVID is important.  At minimum, if the virus were engineered in or escaped from a lab, that would provide powerful evidence in support of greater safety procedures at biolabs to minimize the likelihood of another leak. 

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that suggests that the virus had its origins in the Wuhan lab.  Were the virus had natural origins, why would China be doing everything it can to prevent outsiders from accessing records, personnel and facilities at the lab?  If someone, in this case China, is acting like they have something to hide, there’s a good chance that they really do have something to hide. 

However, in the United States, the American government and the US media are giving the question on the origins of COVID a good leaving alone.  US spy agencies quietly released a report in October that said very little about the origins of the virus.  House Democrats show no interest in investigating the origins of COVID. 

What accounts for this indifference?

– Might it be that the Biden Administration fears pointing the finger at China lest they release details of Hunter Biden’s business dealing with China and the CCP?   In the October 2020 debate, Joe Biden claimed that Hunter has never “taken a penny” from a foreign country.  Evidence obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop demonstrates that this was a lie. What evidence might China have of Biden family business dealings, corrupt or legitimate, in that nation or with other hostile powers?

– Might it be that the Democrats are concerned that the discovery of the true origins of COVID might vindicate President Trump who suggested the virus came from a lab? 

– Might it be that scientists in America are afraid to speak their minds due to concerns about being potentially cut off from research funding from China?  Or possibly, since there are indications that the NIH funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab, that scientists are afraid of retaliation from the NIH?

Given the enormous cost and loss of life from the pandemic, it is important that we learn the origins of the COVID virus.  Unfortunately, the Democrats and the Biden Administration show no interest in allowing the intelligence community or helping U.S. scientists get to the bottom of this question.  We will have to look elsewhere to learn the origins of the COVID virus.

New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams continues to face down threats from Black Lives Matters.  Mr. Adams exhibits a level of courage that no Democrat and few Republicans have matched.

Former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia once famously characterized his job as “the second hardest job in America.” 

Mayor Fiorello wasn’t wrong.  New York City is America’s largest and most diverse city and the financial and cultural center of the nation.

The man that will soon assume the mayorship of New York is Eric Adams.  Adams is black, a former police officer, and a believer in law and order.  Because of the last two, BLM hates him.

When Mr. Adams assumes office on January 1 of next year he will be the highest elected black official in the country. 

BLM has threatened Mayor Adams with “riots, fire and bloodshed” (BLM’s exact words) if he reinstates NYC’s plainclothes police units. 

In response, Mayor Adams has vowed that he is “not going to surrender to BLM” and their threats.

Good for Mayor Adams. 

Whatever good that the BLM movement may have done in the past, BLM is clearly lost. 

When an organization that claims to stand for black interests is threatening the highest elected black official in the country with violence and destruction, something in the movement has gone seriously awry. 

It’s time for BLM and BLM supporters to look themselves in the eye and acknowledge that they are no longer on the side of the angels. 

GOUSA rejects political violence and condemns those groups that threaten or intimidate elected officials. 

Our political credit rating system subtracts a full point from the politician’s score if he or she supports political or mob violence.  This is one way that GOUSA is working to make our political system more fair, open and honest. 

A new poll by Rasmussen Research finds that 49 percent of likely voters think that Donald Trump handled the COVID crisis better than Joe Biden has. 39 percent give Biden the edge.

Overall 55 percent disapprove of Biden’s handling of the pandemic including 44 percent who strongly disapprove. Only 43 percent of likely voters approve of Biden’s handling of the pandemic.

Looking back at 2020, the Trump Administration had many successes in dealing with the pandemic;

• The Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed allowed for the development of COVID vaccines in record time.
• The Trump Administration solved the shortage of ventilators by mobilizing manufacturers and creating arrangements that allowed hospitals to exchange ventilators ensuring efficient use of the devices in the U.S. health care system.
• The Trump Administration mobilized the medical personnel and resources of the U.S. military to provide care to citizens. This included the deployment of U.S. Navy hospital ships to New York City to provide overflow capacity to that city’s hospitals.
• The Trump Administration quickly closed off travel from China at the onset of the outbreak. Of course, these measures were quickly racialized by the mainstream media–the same media that applauded Joe Biden’s ban on travel from Africa.

So how does this compare to the Biden Administration?

• The Biden Administration instituted unconstitutional and authoritarian vaccine requirements for private citizens. These requirements have been repeatedly struck down in the courts and rejected by Congress.
• The Biden Administration cynically tried to extend the moratorium on evictions even after it was struck down by the Supreme Court.
• The Biden Administration thoroughly politicized the CDC to the extent that mask requirements for kids was not based on scientific considerations but instead on the demands of teacher’s unions.
• Covered up evidence on the laboratory origins of the COVID virus. This makes it more difficult for scientists to develop responses to the current pandemic and sets the world up for future pandemics resulting from gain-of-function research.

The difference is clear. The Trump Administration used government to solve the problem. The Biden Administration views Americans and their behavior as the problem. It’s not surprising that Americans are coming to view the Trump’s handling of the pandemic as better than Biden’s.

Good news on the medical freedom front. It may be the case that Charlie Baker’s Massachusetts in one of just a few blue states with vaccine mandates for public-sector workers.

Politico is reporting growing apprehension among blue state Democratic governors to impose vaccine mandates on public sector workers. This includes Phil Murphy, Charlie Baker’s classmate at Needham High. As a result, Massachusetts could be one of just a few jurisdictions that force state employees to submit to vaccine requirements.

Politico writes:

In recent comments, several high-profile Democrats have stated their opposition to vaccine mandates, specifically applied to private businesses. The most recent Democratic lawmaker to voice her concern was Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER. Once considered to be Biden’s vice president, Whitmer said she opposes mandates, citing the impact on the state’s workforce — as Michigan grapples with upticks in cases and residents are split on whether or not to get the vaccine.

“We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is,” Whitmer said on Monday, according to the Daily News in Greenville. “I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.”

Whitmer isn’t the only Democrat now sounding these notes. Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) has said he does not support requiring businesses with over 100 employees to ensure that their workforces are vaccinated from Covid-19. Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.) has thrown a bit of shade on it too.Gov. PHIL MURPHY (D-.N.J.), shortly before an unexpectedly close re-election win, shied away from embracing a strict vaccine mandate for teachers and other public workers. Gov. KATHY HOCHUL (D-N.Y.), who is running for election after taking over for disgraced former Gov. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.), has stated her opposition to a “broad-based mandate for all private-sector workers in New York.”

GOUSA has provided a forum for those opposed to vaccine mandates. Our November 2 Opportunity Report Show featured Karina Demurchyan from Make Americans Free Again MA. You can watch the show at this link.

With the media quick to report on dissent within the Republican party, it is easy to forget that dissatisfaction among Democrats with their party’s leadership at the national level is at least as intense.   

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are far less popular among Democratic Capitol Hill staffers than Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are among Republicans. 

The Daily Mail is reporting on the results of a confidential poll of Capitol Hill insiders conducted by Punchbowl News.    

62 percent of Democratic insiders think that Schumer and Pelosi should go regardless of the Democrats do in the 2022 midterm election and 79 percent think that they should go if the Democrats don’t do well. 

In contrast, 46 percent of Republican staffers want McCarthy and McConnell to stay regardless of the outcome in 2022 and 72 percent want them to stay even if the Republicans do poorly in the midterms. 

Survey results appear below.

The resignation of key staffers from Kamala Harris’s office is another indication that all is not peaches and cream among Democratic staffers in the executive branch either.  Staffers describe working with Ms. Harris describe her bullying as “soul destroying” and that she “fails to read briefing materials, then lashes out at others when she’s unprepared.”

The findings of the survey and the turnover in the Vice President’s office starkly contrasts with the narrative from the corporate media which generally focuses on internal machinations within the Republican party. 

Here at GOUSA, we believe that elected officials should be working to provide Americans with the opportunity to achieve a better life for ourselves, our families and our communities.  We believe that the voters are more united than divided on critical issues. 

We also believe in political change.  Politicians who aren’t serving the interests of people need to be replaced with those who will.  The evidence above suggests that change is sorely needed in both parties. 

Pictures and videos of some of the speakers at Christmas Uncanceled are up at GOUSA’s Facebook, Youtube and Twitter pages. Thanks to everyone who organized the evening and came out!

Here at GOUSA, we are eco-modernists, not eco-miserabilists.  Cheap, reliable energy creates opportunities for all Americans and the only source for that is nuclear energy.

Other nations are taking the lead in the development of nuclear energy.  We blogged before about the huge amount of new nuclear capacity that China plans to build in the next ten years.

France, already the world leader in nuclear energy, announced that it plans to develop small modular nuclear reactors. 

In the United States, nuclear power development has been blocked for fifty years for political reasons.  Opposition has been from the left.  

During that time, new reactor designs have made nuclear power even safer and cleaner. 

Republicans have consistently been supporters of nuclear energy.  Indeed, support for nuclear was a central theme of President Trump’s energy strategy. 

Finally, there are signs that Democrats may be coming around.  A recent survey (below) showed that a slight majority of Democrats now support or strongly support nuclear power.

Might a sea change in energy policy be in the offing?  We hope so.

At GOUSA, we believe in the power of technology and innovation to lift living standards not only for Americans but for all mankind.  We reject the eco-miserablism of Greta Thunberg and the left which argues that saving the planet requires consigning billions to a life of poverty and unending misery.    

If you believe as we do, please join our movement at GOUSA.  You can join our mailing list here or send us a message via “Contact Us” at go-usa.us. 

A new survey from Gallup asked Americans whether inflation is making it harder to maintain their standard of living. 45 percent said it was with 10 percent saying that inflation was creating a severe financial hardship in their household.

The impact of inflation was more severe for poorer Americans. 71 percent of Americans in households with an annual income of $40,000 or less said that inflation was making it more difficult for them to maintain their standard of living and 28 percent saying it was making it much harder. So much for the Democrats being the party of the poor.

Inflation is also a more severe hardship for households without a college degree. So much for the Democrats being the party of the working class.

More bad news. It is becoming more likely that prices are going to go up a lot in 2022. the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is now forecasting that prices in the U.S. will increase by more than 4 percent in 2022. That’s up from just over 3 percent in their September forecast.

High levels of inflation have a disproportionate impact on lower income and younger Americans. Low income and younger households spend more of their income on goods and services and therefore are more heavily impacted by rising prices at stores and supermarkets.

Of course, the corporate media, which is totally in the tank for the Biden Administration and the Democrats, is trying to spin the lie that inflation is a good thing.

Come have tons of fun and share Christmas cheer with friends at GOUSA’s special dinner event on December 4. Tickers available at our Eventbrite page.

We’ve lined up great speakers, special guests and a h-u-u-u-g-e dinner spread. Speakers include GOP Candidate for Gov. Geoff Diehl, Jacob Wells from GiveSendGo, Shane Trejo from Republicans for National Renewal, Marcy McCauley from Restore Our American Republic (ROAR), and John Paul from GOUSA. 

Bring friends and come to support the first universal, nonpartisan political credit rating system, the OppScore®, to finally hold all Members of Congress fully accountable. Great People, Food, Drinks, Dancing and Entertainment. It’s time to stand together in support of our American principles and values, and to defend and preserve our liberties and freedoms.

Let us give thanks for those who brought forth this great nation, who continue to secure our freedoms today, and for the opportunity to create a better tomorrow. In that spirit, we offer below President Reagan’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation from 1986.

By the President of the United States of America:

Perhaps no custom reveals our character as a Nation so clearly as our celebration of Thanksgiving Day. Rooted deeply in our Judeo-Christian heritage, the practice of offering thanksgiving underscores our unshakeable belief in God as the foundation of our Nation and our firm reliance upon Him from Whom all blessings flow. Both as individuals and as a people, we join with the Psalmist in song and praise: “Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.”

One of the most inspiring portrayals of American history is that of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That moving image personifies and testifies to our Founders’ dependence upon Divine Providence during the darkest hours of our Revolutionary struggle. It was then — when our mettle as a Nation was tested most severely — that the Sovereign and Judge of nations heard our plea and came to our assistance in the form of aid from France. Thereupon General Washington immediately called for a special day of thanksgiving among his troops.

Eleven years later, President Washington, at the request of the Congress, first proclaimed November 26, 1789, as Thanksgiving Day. In his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, President Washington exhorted the people of the United States to observe “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer” so that they might acknowledge “with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” Washington also reminded us that “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

Today let us take heart from the noble example of our first President. Let us pause from our many activities to give thanks to Almighty God for our bountiful harvests and abundant freedoms. Let us call upon Him for continued guidance and assistance in all our endeavors. And let us ever be mindful of the faith and spiritual values that have made our Nation great and that alone can keep us great. With joy and gratitude in our hearts, let us sing those stirring stanzas:

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, in the spirit of George Washington and the Founders, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 27, 1986, as a National Day of Thanksgiving, and I call upon every citizen of this great Nation to gather together in homes and places of worship on that day of thanks to affirm by their prayers and their gratitude the many blessings bestowed upon this land and its people.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

Ronald Reagan

A poll of 750 Massachusetts residents asked what word comes to mind to describe Joe Biden. The results may surprise you.

Massachusetts is known for being up there with California and Vermont as among the most left-leaning states in the nation. So you’d think that residents would be pretty pleased with Joe Biden. No so much.

A November 2021 poll by UMass Amherst/WCVB asked Massachusetts residents what word best described President Biden.

The top three responses: “Incompetent”, “Senile” and “Old”. The word cloud appears below.

For a Democrat, if you’ve lost Massachusetts, you’ve lost the nation.

New Hampshire is one of nine states with a competitive 2022 senate contest. A new poll by Morning Consult has Joe Biden’s approval rate underwater among all New Hampshire voters and cratering nationwide and in the Granite State among suburban voters.

Overall, Biden is now -2 net disapproval in New Hampshire according to the Morning Consult and +1 among New Hampshire suburban voters. That compares to +7 overall and +13 among suburban voters in the Granite State in Q1.

Biden is further underwater among suburban voters in the three other swing states with incumbent Democrats up in 2022. Biden is -14 among suburban voters in Arizona, -4 in Georgia and -14 in Nevada.

The New Hampshire 2022 Senate contest will likely pit retired Brigadier General Don Bolduc against incumbent Maggie Hassan. General Bolduc was a recent a guest on the GOUSA Opportunity Report and was a speaker at GOUSA’s 2021 OppCon.

The New Hampshire senate race will be close with Bolduc just 5 points behind Hassan in a hypothetical matchup according to the University of New Hampshire.

Tying the incumbent to Biden’s policies and championing policies that appeal to suburban voters as well as all voters in New Hampshire may be the key to flipping the New Hampshire senate seat.

The opportunity movement seeks to identify issues that most Americans agree on. The GOUSA rating system evaluates the extent to which a politician’s stances are consistent with greater freedom and opportunity. To learn more about the rating system, go here.

Polls are showing a red tidal wave forming for 2022. Meanwhile, Biden and Harris continue to tank.

Overall, the Real Clear Politics average spread in the generic congressional vote has Republicans up by 3.4 points. And this probably understates the Republican lead as more recent polls have the GOP even further ahead.

Rasmussen (2500 likely voters) has Republicans up by 13 points. Rasumssen points out: “The 13-point edge for Republicans in the latest poll is larger than Democrats enjoyed at any time during the 2018 campaign.”  

In 2018 the Democrats gained 40 seats. Republicans only need to pick up five seats to take control in 2022.

ABC News/Washington Post has Republicans up by 10 among registered voters. The GOP Lead swells to 23 points in states with competitive Senate seats.

Meanwhile, the Bad numbers for Biden and Harris keep coming in. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 41 percent approve of Biden’s performance overall. That falls to a dismal 33 percent approval in states with competitive Senate races.

The election is still almost a year away. It is important that those of us in the opportunity movement continue to work hard and not get cocky.