Welcome to Liberty Nation's Daily Snapshot. All the top news of the day, the latest polls, and more.
What's happening in the political sphere - the hot stories making the news today.
- The daily Coronavirus Task Force press briefings may not continue, President Trump hinted in a tweet on April 25. The presentations have become extremely combative, with reporters using them as an opportunity to grandstand and openly criticize every word and action from the White House. “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” Trump asked. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort.”
- The Orwellian idea of issuing people with Coronavirus immunity documents could be shelved after the World Health Organization stated that there was no evidence that people who had been infected and then recovered would be immune to the virus.
- The Department of Justice has been fighting an order to hand over to Congress sealed documents from the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling. The next step for the DOJ will be to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. This is one of the numerous ongoing legal battles between House of Representatives committees and the Trump administration.
The latest polls and trends impacting the United States.
- The overwhelming majority of Americans – 70%, in fact, according to a recent poll – believe the priority should be to “try to slow the spread of coronavirus by keeping people home and social distancing, even if the economy is hurt in the short term.” Only 30% think the nation should get back to work, even if it means risking exposure to the virus.
- Will post-pandemic life change forever? According to a somewhat vaguely-worded report from Variety, more Americans plan to continue to use streaming services at home after the shutdown and go less frequently to movies and theaters.
- It is perhaps alarming to see that a YouGov survey finds 64% of Americans believe the current restrictions on their freedom to move about in public are constitutional. As one might expect, more Democrats than Republicans feel this way, but even among Republicans, 42% agree.
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
Several U.S. states are on the verge of opening back up, to some extent, after weeks of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. Though social distancing guidelines will remain in place and the return to some semblance of normality will be gradual, the nation could be close to finding out just how important – or not – the restrictions have been. As more people begin to emerge from their enforced hibernation and mingle once again in public spaces and businesses, those who want to keep the country locked down might be cynically hoping for steep spikes in new Coronavirus cases across the states in question. How tragic that a portion of the population will be virtually rooting for failure? If the peaks fail to materialize, how much longer will other states continue to enforce restrictions before their respective residents lose patience altogether and demand a speedy return to normal?
A thought for the day from history's most interesting thinkers.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
- H. L. Mencken
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