Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Joe Biden helped a movement when he changed his mind on LGBTQ issues. Who advises him now?
In politics, leaders who are decisive and unwavering are frequently lauded as strong and effective while those who change their minds are branded as “flip floppers,” a reproach that can derail and possibly even end a career. That can be especially true amid the partisanship of the current political climate, the most polarizing period of American history since the Civil War.
But with the passage of time often comes a deeper understanding of those issues and of the leaders whose positions on them shifted.
So it is that Biden, who once suggested gay men and women might jeopardize national security and who as a senator took positions that often mystified and infuriated LGBTQ advocates, is now regarded as the most LGBTQ-friendly president in U.S. history
Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need
The policy applied in Finland is called “HousingFirst”. It reverses conventional homeless aid. More commonly, those affected are expected to look for a job and free themselves from their psychological problems or addictions. Only then they get help in finding accommodation.
“Housing First”, on the other hand, reverses the path: Homeless people get a flat – without any preconditions. Social workers help them with applications for social benefits and are available for counselling in general. In such a new, secure situation, it is easier for those affected to find a job and take care of their physical and mental health.
The result is impressive: 4 out of 5 homeless people will be able to keep their flat for a long time with “Housing First” and lead a more stable life.
Trump's former lawyer was indicted in Georgia. She wants his defense funds to pay her legal fees.
"I was reliably informed Trump isn’t funding any of us who are indicted," said former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "Would this change if he becomes the nominee? Why then, not now?"
Officials with the Trump campaign and the pro-Trump political action committee, Make America Great Again, Inc., have not publicly commented on Ellis' question. Trump has called on donors and supporters to help with his legal fees.
Ellis is one of the 18 aides and allies indicted along with Trump in Atlanta. A grand jury accused them of organizing a conspiracy to steal the election in Georgia and other states from President Joe Biden.
Why do Republicans disproportionately believe health misinformation?
Respondents to new polling from KFF were presented with a number of statements and asked to evaluate whether they thought the claims were definitely or probably true. Asked about false claims that have been made about covid and other vaccines, Republicans were on average 20 percent more likely to state that they believed the false claims were accurate. Foremost among them: the regularly debunked idea that the coronavirus vaccine has caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. Nearly half of Republicans think that’s true.
Trump attorneys guided false electors in Georgia, GOP chair says
Shafer, who was among the Republicans who signed documents claiming to be a presidential elector for Trump despite Biden’s victory, has long claimed that the effort was meant to preserve Trump’s chances to prevail in Georgia in case his pending lawsuits broke in his favor. In Tuesday’s filing, Shafer underscored that the strategy was driven almost entirely by lawyers acting on Trump’s behalf — including Ray Smith, one of the other defendants charged in the case.
Trump’s call for mass protest was a flop. But a different kind of threat is taking shape instead.
Turns out, yes — yes, we can. Despite what he promised to do, Trump could not pull it off, which is good news for our democracy.
The bad news is that we’re getting something else instead. Not mass violence again like we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, or even mass protest. What we are getting instead are individual acts — both violence and threats of violence by radicalized people and groups.
One in 8 Republicans think winning is more important than election rules
A lot of Republicans clearly think that Trump was simply working an angle, as he had done so many times in so many circumstances before. Others — clearly fewer — think that what he did was illegal. Some chunk of the likely 2024 primary electorate, though, sits in a weird position: agreeing that Trump broke the law in his efforts to remain president, but also supporting his bid to regain that position in January 2025.
Killing over Pride flag follows far right’s years of criticism of the LGBTQ symbol
The prevalence of the decades-old symbol of unity and equality is arguably part of the reason Friday’s fatal shooting of a California business owner, allegedly for displaying a Pride flag at her shop, was met with overwhelming shock, as well as an outpouring of grief from LGBTQ advocates, politicians and celebrities from across the country.
Evangelical Homeschooling and the Development of “Family Values”
By the late 1980s, evangelicals comprised close to 90% of American homeschooling families. Most had little in common with the unschoolers of Holt’s era. Conservative evangelicals fled schools not because standardized testing and bloated bureaucracy stifled children’s creativity—the reasons for homeschooling cited by Holt—but because they believed secular liberals were indoctrinating their kids. Evangelicals worried about too little discipline in schools, not too much. They determined to re-inscribe traditional authority by returning education to the home.
Takeaways from the first Republican presidential primary debate
Vivek Ramaswamy, the 38-year-old entrepreneur and first-time candidate, was alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the center of the stage – and he was the central figure for much of the night. Ramaswamy clashed with former Vice President Mike Pence over his experience, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley over foreign policy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over Trump, and more.
And because he has positioned himself as a defender of Trump, Ramaswamy was, at times, a stand-in for the former president, who momentarily ceded the stage Wednesday night but will take it back Thursday when he turns himself in at the Fulton County jail in Georgia as he faces election subversion charges.
Ronna McDaniel: ‘We’re not going to win’ in 2024 if we don’t talk abortion
“I was very pleased to see them talk about abortion,” McDaniel told Fox News on Thursday morning. “Democrats used that in 2022. ... If our candidates aren’t able to fend a response and put out a response, we’re not going to win. They’re going to do it again in 2024. And I thought all of them did a really good job on that.”
Fact check the Republican debate? We've got you covered. What candidates got right (or wrong)
With former President Donald Trump notably absent, the remaining candidates often found themselves attacking each other rather than the party's front-runner – and sometimes straying from the facts in order to do so.
Live file: Fact-checking the GOP debate: Claims on CRT, Hunter Biden, schools, Ukraine, COVID-19
Topics included the candidates' records on education, criticism of the state of the economy and concerns about violent crime in the country, with each subject prompting a handful of misleading claims.
Poll: Trump could be in big trouble for 2024 if convicted of crimes
Asked about their current preference for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, a full 52% of potential Republican primary voters — that is, voters who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning independents — select Trump. That makes him the party’s undisputed frontrunner, with the next closest candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trailing by 40 percentage points.
But when the same voters are asked a new follow-up question — “If Trump is convicted of a serious crime in the coming months, who would you vote for in your state’s 2024 Republican primary?” — support for the former president suddenly plummets by 17 points (to just 35%). Support for DeSantis, on the other hand, rises by 8 points (to 20%). Another 17% say they’re not sure (up from 14%). No other candidate gains more than a point or two.
Lock Him Up? A New Poll Has Some Bad News for Trump
A new POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos poll provides some bad news for Trump: Even as he remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, the cascading indictments are likely to take a toll on his general election prospects.
The survey results suggest Americans are taking the cases seriously — particularly the Justice Department’s 2020 election case — and that most people are skeptical of Trump’s claim to be the victim of a legally baseless witch hunt or an elaborate, multi-jurisdictional effort to “weaponize” law enforcement authorities against him.
Climate Change Is Still a Huge Electoral Problem for Republicans
Granted, the bar is so, so low. In the 2012 cycle, there were more questions asked about the moon than about the Earth. In 2016, voters concerned about our climate’s future had to watch Hillary Clinton declare that she believed in science as a laugh line, since the concept of a (denialist) President Donald Trump was still perceived as a joke. Last cycle, climate change did come up, albeit mostly in the Democratic primaries, not in Trump-devoted Republican circles. But over the past decade, the climate around climate change has, well, changed considerably: Following youth trends more broadly, Gen Z and millennial Republicans have consistently stated that they want their party to take firm action on the problem. As John Della Volpe, polling director at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, noted in a pre-debate newsletter: “Protecting access to clean air and water … is about as important to younger Republicans as preserving traditional values is for older ones.”
States Fights
Georgia teacher fired for teaching fifth graders about gender binary
In a 4-3 vote along party lines, the Cobb County School Board in Georgia voted to fire Katie Rinderle. She had taught at the district for 10 years before being reprimanded for reading “My Shadow Is Purple” by Scott Stuart at Due West Elementary School, a picture book that challenged the gender binary, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement released through the Southern Press Law Center (SPLC), which helped represent Rinderle, she expressed disappointment in "the district’s decision to terminate me for reading an inclusive and affirming book — one that is representative of diverse student identities," she said.
Abortion divides Iowa GOP voters ahead of crucial first primary debate
A clear majority, 61% of Iowans, said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But the first competition here is the Republican caucuses, and the poll found that 59% of Republicans and 64% of evangelicals believed abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.
Vocal Locals
A sex educator in Michigan refused to be shamed. Then came the backlash.
As the sex educator for the county’s health department, Alberda, 46, developed programs to lower teen pregnancy and curb the spread of sexually transmitted infections. She spoke about sex and sexuality with a directness that was rare in her conservative county and sometimes got her into trouble.
A late June meeting of the county board was streaming on Alberda’s living room TV. The board’s vice chair, Sylvia Rhodea, was introducing a resolution that sought to “protect childhood innocence” by blocking the county from spending money on programs that “normalize or encourage the sexualization of children.”
In her 21 years at the health department, the county’s teen pregnancy rate had decreased by 76 percent and is the fourth-lowest among Michigan’s 83 counties. The abortion rate for Ottawa County during the same period fell by 18 percent, according to state data.