Poll on America at 250

 Many posts have discussed patriotism and American exceptionalism.

GARY FIELDS, LINLEY SANDERS and NICHOLAS RICCARDI at AP:

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research highlights many Americans’ feeling of unease over the future of its representative government — particularly among young people. It presents a jarring contrast as communities around the country commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Only about one-quarter of Americans say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world, the new poll found, while 44% say it’s one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others. About 3 in 10 say there are better countries than the U.S., an increase from 19% in an AP-NORC poll conducted in June 2016.

Americans remain divided about whether diversity is an essential feature of the U.S.'s identity, and agreement about other aspects of the country’s underlying character appears to be eroding, the survey found. Americans are less likely to see a democratically elected government as “extremely” or “very” important to the United States’ identity as a nation than they were just a few years ago. About two-thirds of U.S. adults now say a democratically elected government is highly important to the U.S.’s identity as a nation, down from 80% in 2021.

...

Toung adults are much less likely than older Americans to believe the U.S. is special, compared with other nations, the poll found.

About 4 in 10, 44%, of U.S. adults under 30 say there are other countries better than the U.S., compared with 22% of U.S. adults ages 60 and older.

Fewer, too, see democracy as a key element of the U.S.’s identity. Only about half of Americans under 30 believe this, compared with 81% of those 60 and older.

Depletion Day

Many posts have discussed Social Security and Medicare.

Lorie Konish at CNBC:

A Social Security trust fund used to pay retirement benefits may run out in late 2032, three months earlier than what had been projected last June, according to the new Social Security Administration annual trustees report released Tuesday.

Social Security uses incoming revenue from payroll taxes to pay benefits. When benefit payments exceed payroll tax income, the program relies on the trust funds to help make up the shortfall.

The report said that if the fund is depleted as projected, Social Security will only be able to pay 78% of retirement benefits.

The new projected depletion date follows the enactment of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” tax law, which Social Security’s chief actuary said in an August letter would have “material effects” on the financial status of the trust funds because it impacts income taxation of Social Security benefits. At that point, they estimated late 2032 for the retirement fund depletion date, pushed up from the 2025 trustees report estimate of the first quarter of 2033.

The OASI trust fund — formally known as Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, or OASI — if combined with the disability insurance trust fund, may be able to pay full benefits until the third quarter of 2034, when 83% of benefits will be payable, according to the new report. That estimate is unchanged from the prior trustees report.

The actuary's letter explained:

Because the revenue from income taxation of Social Security benefits is directed to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, implementation of the OBBBA will have material effects on the financial status of the Social Security trust funds.  

 

Hamilton and the Removal Power

Previous posts have discussed the appointment and removal of executive branch officials.

Gary Schmitt at AEI:

During the First Congress’s debate in which James Madison and others defended the ideas that the president had the constitutional power to remove department heads “at pleasure,” one of Madison’s opponents noted that, in Federalist #77, Alexander Hamilton had written that the Senate’s consent would be necessary not only for an official’s appointment but also “to displace” them. Madison and Hamilton, the two most influential expositors of the newly adopted constitution were seemingly at odds over how the government would remove senior administration figures.

Hamilton, alerted to the fact that his statement in Federalist #77 had been used to challenge Madison’s argument sent a note (see William Smith letter to Edward Rutledge, June 21, 1789) to a Madison ally in the House to let its members know that “upon more mature reflection,” he now agreed with Madison. The power to remove was the president’s alone as a constitutionally implied power of the office.

...

Religion, Well-Being, and the State of the States

Many posts have discussed federalism.

The State of the States Report of the State of the Nation Project has valuable data on states.

 

The State of the Nation report ranked every state across 31 measures like infant mortality, murder rate, voter turnout, etc.

Lower ranks are better.

I plotted that against the share of each state that is highly religious.

The most religious states had the worst ranks. pic.twitter.com/YdgQAvWzYT

— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) June 7, 2026

Disease Resurgence

Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation.The greatest spreader of vaccine misinformation is the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Maggie Astor and Dani Blum at NYT:

Doctors around the country say they are seeing more cases of serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long kept at bay, including whooping cough and bacterial infections that can cause pneumonia or meningitis.

The concern among doctors comes on the heels of a resurgence of measles nationwide, fueled by distrust in vaccines that grew during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Trump have amplified. Public health experts have long seen measles as a harbinger: Because it is so exceptionally contagious, it can be the first disease to spike as vaccination rates broadly decline, and a sign of more to come.

For some of these diseases, national data show clear and substantial increases in recent years; for others, the increases are small, or there are anecdotal indications from doctors on the ground of increases that public statistics don’t currently confirm.

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The onslaught of preventable illness and other health risks can feel overwhelming, doctors said. So can navigating the medical misinformation some patients recite.

“It just feels like you’re a tiny little boat with a giant tidal wave coming at you,” said Dr. Erin Charles, a regional pediatric hospitalist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “And you might convince one family here and there.”

Many parents continue to refuse vaccines even after their child has been hospitalized with a vaccine-preventable illness, doctors said. Dr. Kirk said she had never had a parent in that situation tell her they had changed their mind and would have their child vaccinated on the standard schedule. Dr. Hofto said she could sometimes persuade families, but often not.

An episode of The Pitt takes on the antivax loonies.

AI Is Fallible -- Very Fallible

Artificial intelligence is an increasingly important topic in politics, policy, and law.

It is better than a couple of years ago -- but still very fallible.

Chris Cillizza:

What do people use A.I. for when it comes to the news?

To check facts, according to new polling from Katie Harbath.

And A.I. is (still) not good at doing that.

“I would not use it as a fact-checking mechanism,” Harbath, a former GOP operative and longtime Facebook executive who now writes Anchor Change with Katie Harbath, told me in a Substack Live on Wednesday.

Writing on that topics, Harbath noted:

Ask one of the leading AI chatbots a question about the upcoming midterm elections, and there is a 90% chance the response will be flawed in some material way: a factual error, a clear partisan lean, a citation to a foreign state-controlled outlet, or some combination of all three.

In our conversation on Wednesday, Harbath added:

I am always double-checking what numbers [the AI is] pulling in…I do not just blindly trust. We’ve seen so many examples of that — like there was a story recently about a book where the AI generated a bunch of fake quotes that the person put in.

(Sidebar: Katie is referring to “The Future of Truth” by Steven Rosenbaum — a book about truth in A.I. that, wait for it, had fake quotes in it that A.I. had made up.)

So….not great!

Katie and I had an in-depth conversation about both how the average voter uses A.I. as well as how campaign pros are using artificial intelligence to do their jobs.

This is the first in a series of conversations Katie and I are going to have about the transformative power of A.I. — and how it is playing out in the realm of campaign politics.

Presidential Power, June 2026

 Article II

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. ...

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States...


He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

... 

[He] shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Use of Force

Plenty of precedent: CRS counts 469 foreign interventions between 1798 and 2022.

Dueling Lincoln Quotations

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, is to and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose– and you allow him to make war at pleasure ...This, our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us." -- letter to William Herndon, February 15, 1848

"Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the constitution? By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation." --letter to Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864

Since January 20, 2025: Iran, Venezuela,counterterrorism Strikes in Iraq, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Executive Orders

Executive Clemency

Investigation and Prosecution

• James Comey, Letitia James, Jerome Powell
• John Bolton:  pleading to one count of mishandling classified information.
• Universities and funding
• Law firms representing Trump adversaries: contracts
• Media companies and FCC license threats

Soft Power:  "Power to Persuade"

Overall approval