They're Unpopular, and It Should Matter

Right-wing education efforts are not particularly popular with normal people, according to a recent poll from the Global Strategies Group.

Not surprisingly, people who identified as Republicans rated Republican talking points as important, but independents, Democrats, and parents generally did not:

 

Republicans were the only ones to come in at over 50% on "parents having a say in what their kids are learning," when asked about their biggest concerns about education. Parents, on average (which, of course, includes some Republicans) only got to 34% on that:

Overall, most people are more likely to trust Democrats to look out for children... except people who are white. Only 45% of us white people trust Democrats more. As always, WTF, my fellow white people? (I know the answer to that, of course: we are much more likely to be Republicans.) And politically, a lot of independents don't know who to trust, it seems:

Note: I feel compelled to point out that the differences between these two charts fascinate me. The two questions they're based on seem almost identical. Who do you trust to handle A) looking out for children vs. B) caring for children's well-being. What is the difference between those two things? Was this A/B testing? Why would Democrats do better on the first one and worse on the second? What does "looking out for children" mean vs. "caring for children's well-being"? And I note that it does say "split sample" at the top, so I guess it was A/B testing. Well, I guess they found out that "looking out for children" is better terminology for Democrats, especially among independents, though it lost ground among Asian Americans.

On some of the most contentious issues, there was some good news. Solid majorities, including among Republicans, support ideas that are considered progressive, like affordable child care and universal preschool. Two thirds oppose banning AP classes like African American history, and almost 60% oppose banning books that some parents question (which seems low to me, but at least it's well over 50%!).  

Not as good: only 46–47% came out against banning so-called critical race theory or banning transgender health care for youth or allowing trans children to play on the team that goes with their gender expression. A fairly consistent 40% or so are opposed, strongly or somewhat, to "CRT" and the rights of trans children, with CRT doing slightly worse. (My conclusion from that result: CRT has had negative coverage in right-wing media for a longer period than trans rights, so fewer adherents have gotten the message. And also that those questions were probably confusing because they were about supporting or opposing bans... double and triple negatives.)

By semi-coincidence, one of my favorite Twitter accounts, David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) tweeted some thoughts this afternoon that could have been in response to this set of survey results, though I don't think they were:

Republicans don't care if their agenda is unpopular. Their plan is:

1) Lie and say it's popular and assume it'll be repeated a lot, thus reassuring their supporters they are the majority.
2) Minority rule based on disenfranchisement, control of the courts, and mob terror.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't point out that their positions are unpopular; it gives our craven electeds motivation to fight. Just like we should indeed point out hypocrisy and use it to rile up our base, to mock them, to control discourse.

But the solution is to gain power and then use it without apology to preserve access to the ballot and to make people's lives better, and then to tell them that the reason their lives are better is because of progressive policies.

So here I am, pointing out that the Right's positions on education are generally unpopular, and saying we should continue to fight on the ones that they may slightly lead on because those are also winnable.

Go Fight Win!