Pew: Obama's approval ratings similar to Reagan's

The Yankton Press & Dakotan editorial board isn't very happy with the Republican congress:

THUMBS DOWN to congressional Republicans who have decided they won’t even listen to the Obama administration’s final budget proposal. In a move that breaks decades of tradition and foists a middle finger at the president, GOP has decided not to invite White House budget director Shaun Donovan to budget hearings. “Rather than spend time on a proposal that … will double down on the same failed policies that have led to the worst economic recovery in modern times, Congress should continue our work on building a budget that balances and that will foster a healthy economy,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Georgia). So, in a blatant election-year move, the GOP has decided to ignore the president, whose proposal is usually a starting point for negotiations anyway. In fact, this is doubling down --- but more so on the exasperating, disrespectful political theater that has overtaken Capitol Hill and has given Congress some of its lowest approval ratings ever. Apparently, these politicians just can’t help themselves. [We Say]

Ouch.

A plank of the Southern Strategy seeking to assuage poor white people in the wake of the civil rights movement, the so-called 'War on Drugs' declared by the Nixon White House, then institutionalized by the Reagan and Clinton Administrations, redefined caste in the United States becoming a policy tool for the mass incarceration of non-white men.

Our poll in December 2015 showed that 46% of Americans approve of Barack Obama’s job performance – a rating that’s been steady throughout 2015, and is up 4 percentage points from a year prior. Over the course of Obama’s presidency, his average approval rating among Democrats has been 80%, compared with just 14% among Republicans. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, an average of 31% of Democrats approved of his job performance. Reagan’s approval rating dropped to 49% in January 1987 during the Iran-Contra scandal, but he left office two years later with a 63% rating. The presidents with the starkest gaps between their highs and lows in job approval are George W. Bush and his father.

Read the rest here.

President Reagan removed the photovoltaic cells from the roof of the White House destroying the country's momentum toward an energy-independent future.