In an interview with the New Republic President Obama claims ending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell via an executive order would have caused “huge blowback,” but this claim is highly dubious. So a great example of that is the work we did on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” There were advocates in the LGBT community who were [...]

Recently Gallup released two sets of polls on gun control which highlight why it will be very difficult for President Obama to achieve anything legislative over the next two years. When asked individually about the gun reform ideas Obama recently endorsed Gallup found all the proposals had majority support. From Gallup: Yet last week when [...]

The good news for President Obama is that his package of gun control proposals are relatively popular. Gallup found that 53 percent of Americans are for them and 41 percent are against them. The problem is that now that these are the “Obama’s gun control proposals,” they have become highly polarized. From Gallup: Regular Republicans [...]

Following the recent mass shootings there has been a noticeable spike in support for stricter gun laws; but overall, a plurality of Americans are still satisfied with our current gun laws, according to Gallup. From Gallup: This is a reminder that even though the politics around gun control have changed noticeably in the last few [...]

The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, along with others, has resulted in a real and significant change in popular opinion about gun laws. Support for stricter gun laws has increased dramatically since last year. From Gallup: This appears to be the tipping point on this issue, with the politics around gun regulation now very [...]

A new poll from Gallup asking people who they think will be helped and hurt by the new law demonstrates why it is unlikely to become popular in the near future. Most Americans think the law will benefit some groups of people. Given that one of the main stated purposes of the law was to [...]

There are signs that the Affordable Care Act popularity got a very tiny boost after the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional, but don’t expect the law to become popular any time in the near future. Opinions about it have remained remarkably fixed and relatively unchanged for two years. While it is true that some provisions [...]

Over the last decade a steadily increasing number of Americans expect to rely on Social Security as a major source of retirement income. From Gallup: However, nonretirees’ expectations have changed since 2007. Fewer nonretirees expect to use their home equity (down nine percentage points), individual stocks and mutual funds (down seven points), and retirement accounts [...]

The collapse in home values (a main source of personal wealth for many), the big drop in the stock market following the economy meltdown, and the long term trend away from traditional pensions have, surprisingly, left a growing majority of adults feeling they don’t have enough saved for retirement. From Gallup: Less than ten years [...]

There are roughly 150 million adults around the world that want to become Americans according to Gallup. I think this is worth pointing out, because the annual Social Security Trust Fund report should be released today. As a result there will likely be much hyperventilating about how the Social Security trust fund is projected to [...]