Stuff You Should Consume - May 30, 2023

Welcome to this week’s edition of “Stuff You Should Consume,”— a weekly compilation of interesting political content for Message Box readers.

“Are the Anti-Trump GOP Forces Starting to Implode?” by Jonathan Martin, Politico

Youngkin’s refusal to fully rule out a 2024 bid illustrates both how much he wants to keep the option open and the lingering hunger in the top ranks of the party for another option. That said — and insert a trigger warning here for veterans of the Wes Clark, Rick Perry and Michael Bloomberg campaigns — late entrants have invariably flopped in modern primaries.

But, again, this is all delightful to Trump, who is thrilled about the prospect of more candidates carving up the opposition. Never one for subtext, the former president responded to Scott’s entry by gleefully saying the primary “is rapidly loading up with lots of people.”

“The Rise, Fall And Potential Resurrection Of Ron DeSantis” by Geoffrey Skelley, FiveThirtyEight

As things stand, though, only DeSantis is close to Trump in net favorability among the high-profile Republicans running or expected to run for president. His profile as a Trump-like figure — but one presenting himself as more electable — has made him almost as well-liked as Trump among Republicans, despite not being as well known. In an average of national polls since April 1, DeSantis had a favorable rating of 72 percent and an unfavorable rating of about 15 percent, putting his net favorability at +57 among Republicans. By comparison, Trump’s net favorability was at +60, but nearly all Republicans had an opinion about him, whereas 87 percent, on average, had an opinion of DeSantis. As such, DeSantis has an opportunity to win over some of the remaining Republicans who don’t know him well.

“Meatball Ron is finally on the menu” by Kyle Tharp, FWIW

If the Twitter launch and website were a little rough, interest in DeSantis’ launch video was a bright spot for the campaign. It was well-produced and has been seen by millions of people across major social media platforms … On Twitter, the video received 23.8 million impressions already, compared to 2.9 million impressions on Tim Scott’s April 12th launch video, and 9.1 million impressions on Nikki Haley’s February 14th launch video. President Joe Biden’s launch video received 44.8 million impressions. Note: Twitter recently eliminated public view counts for videos on its platform, so these numbers reflect the amount people who saw the video tweet in their feeds. 

The video also received 125,000 views on Facebook, 1.9 million views on Instagram, and 236,000 views on Rumble. It’s a strong showing by any measure

“Clarence Thomas’s newest opinion would literally bring back child labor” by Ian Milhiser, Vox

Under the approach Thomas lays out in his Sackett concurrence, the federal ban on child labor is unconstitutional. So is the minimum wage, federal laws protecting the right to unionize, bans on workplace discrimination, and nearly all other regulation of the workplace. Thomas’s approach endangers countless laws governing private business, from rules requiring health insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions to the ban on whites-only lunch counters. And even that is underselling just how much law would be snuffed out if Thomas’s approach took hold.

Though Thomas has said similar things in the past, his opinion in Sackett is one of the most nihilistic opinions written by any federal judge in the last nine decades. This opinion is particularly notable, moreover, because it is joined by another justice, Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch, who was appointed to the Court in 2017, had not previously revealed just how far he is willing to go in sabotaging the United States government.

“Is the Surge to the Left Among Young Voters a Trump Blip or the Real Deal?” by Tom Edsall, New York Times

In a report published this month, “What Happened in 2022,” Catalist, a progressive data analysis firm, found more developments among young voters that favor Democrats: “Gen Z and millennial voters had exceptional levels of turnout, with young voters in heavily contested states exceeding their 2018 turnout by 6 percent among those who were eligible in both elections.”

“Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before FBI came for documents” by Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Spencer S. Hsu and Perry Stein, Washington Post

Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before an early June visit by FBI agents and a prosecutor to the former president’s Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena — timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a “dress rehearsal” for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive ongoing investigation.