Turning The Supreme Court Into A Bastion Of Fascism

PPP released new polling this morning. A majority of Americans wish Obama was still president. And where last week, everyone was stunned that 35% of the country were already hoping Trump would be impeached, in just 7 days, that number has already increased to 40%! Only 43% of Americans are glad Trump is president. (The polling didn't ask about it but evidence is that Trump's strongest support comes from the counties with the heaviest prescription drug abuse and opioid addiction. It could be a coincidence... sure it could.)

Why so much unhappiness with Trump? Voters think basically everything he's doing is wrong:

• Overall voters are pretty evenly split on Trump's executive order on immigration from last week, with 47% supporting it to 49% who are opposed. But when you get beyond the overall package, the pieces of the executive order become more clearly unpopular. 52% of voters think that the order was intended to be a Muslim ban, to only 41% who don't think that was the intent. And the idea of a Muslim ban is extremely unpopular with the American people- only 26% are in favor of it, to 65% who are against it. When it comes to barring people from certain countries from entering the United States, even when those people have already secured a Visa, just 39% of voters are supportive to 53% who are against it. And just 43% of voters support the United States indefinitely suspending accepting Syrian refugees, with 48% opposed to that. Finally voters see a basic competence issue with Trump's handling of the executive order- only 39% of voters think it was well executed, to 55% who believe it was poorly executed.

• It hasn't taken long for voters to develop a pretty dim view of Trump advisor Steve Bannon, and become wary of the extent to which he's being given power within the administration. Only 19% of voters see Bannon favorably, to 40% who have a negative opinion of him. Only 34% of voters approve of his being given a seat on the principals committee of the National Security Council, to 44% who are opposed to that. What's particularly telling is that only 19% of voters think Bannon belongs in that seat on the National Security Council more than the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence, to 59% who believe those folks are more deserving of that place at the table. Even Trump voters think he's gone too far on that front- by a 40/35 margin they think the more traditional members should have that position rather than Bannon.

• Very few voters go along with Trump when it comes to his voter fraud paranoia. Only 26% of voters think millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 Presidential election, to 55% who believe that's not a real thing. This is another issue where even a significant number of Trump voters become wary of his claim- 47% believe it but 27% don't and another 26% aren't sure. It's been unusual to find things where a majority of Trump's voters don't go along with him.

• Voters continue to be very skeptical of the funding plan for the wall with Mexico. Only 40% of voters are in support of building the wall if American taxpayers have to front the cost for it, to 54% who are opposed. And there's similar opposition when it comes to the 20% tax on items imported to the US from Mexico that the administration floated last week- only 37% of voters support that to 50% who are opposed to it.

• Obamacare continues to become more popular the more talk there is about repealing it. 46% of voters now say they support it to just 41% who are opposed. And only 33% of voters think the best course of action is for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act and start over, to 62% who think it would be better to keep it and fix the parts that need fixing.

Another aspect of Trump's unpopularity is that he's losing all of his fights. In the last week he's gone on the attack on Twitter against John McCain, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CNN and in each case we find voters siding with Trump's adversary:

• By a 51/37 spread voters say John McCain has more credibility than Trump.
• By a 52/41 spread voters say the Washington Post has more credibility than Trump.
•By a 51/42 spread voters say the New York Times has more credibility than Trump.
•By a 50/42 spread voters say CNN has more credibility than Trump.

...Only 13% of voters approve of the job Congress is doing, to 68% who disapprove. Paul Ryan has a 35/43 approval rating, and Mitch McConnell's is 17/55. Democrats lead the generic Congressional ballot 45/42.

PPP hasn't had time to poll on Trump's Supreme Court nominee yet. Today Gorsuch was making his rounds in the Senate. He met with Bob Corker (R-TN) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) just as the news was breaking that he this child of immense privilege who spent his entire life in elite tony prep schools had once started a club called Fascism Forever.

The Daily Mail reported that Gorsuch founded and led a student group called the 'Fascism Forever Club' at his elite high school... to rally against the ‘left-wing tendencies’ of his professors while attending a Jesuit all-boys preparatory high school near Washington D.C." Gorsuch-- which Spell-check insists is spelled "grouch"-- founded the club in his freshman year and remained president through his senior year. Yep, Trump found a life-long kook to nominate to the Court.

And, no, the fascist little piece of shit didn't get any better when he went off to college. Today's New York Daily News reported that he "expressed disdain for protesters in a series of columns published by a Columbia University newspaper-- and one time had to retract a fabricated story he wrote about a student activist." His college writings exposed him as a racist and a corporate whore, attitudes he later took to the bench and were the foundations of his judicial opinions.

Jordan Kushner, a Minnesota resident who attended Columbia with Gorsuch, told The News that the potential Supreme Court justice could be bad for the country.

“Our civil liberties are at danger, and someone of the conservative caliber of Gorsuch certainly increases that danger,” Kushner, 51, said. “I think it’s disturbing but I can’t see Trump appointing anyone who’s better than him. We got what we expected from a Trump appointee.”

Kushner, a civil rights attorney residing in Minneapolis, recalled protesting the Coors Beer Company at a student grocery store while attending Columbia. A large group of students were lamenting the beverage giant for supposedly violating workers’ civil rights while allocating profits to organizations promoting racism and homophobia, Kushner said.

Gorsuch wrote a story about the protest for the conservative-leaning Federalist newspaper, which he co-founded in 1986. The story falsely claimed Kushner damaged property at the grocery store.

“He said I started kicking beer kegs and acting crazy, even though that wasn’t true so he had to do a retraction,” Kushner said, describing himself as being a leftist political activist at the time. “He had that biting thing against me…He did not like protesters.”