15 Mar 2025 Reading time: 1 minute This is the eighth recap of my new mini project, where I post a quote by a Founding Father each day to this Bluesky account.
“When a broad table is to be made, and the edges of planks do not fit, the artist takes a little from both, and makes a good joint. In like manner here both sides must part with some of their demands, in order that they may join in some accommodating proposition“
- Benjamin Franklin
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence“
- John Adams
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech“
- Benjamin Franklin
“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.“
- James Madison
”The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.“
- James Madison
“Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.“
- George Washington
13 Mar 2025 Reading time: 1 minute 
I wrote an article about a week or so that showed 538 (the gold standard of polling aggregates) had shown that disapproval was now higher than approval, a stunning reversal from already drastically underwhelming starting net approval versus other presidents. There are other really bad sets of numbers that were just coming out that you should check out in that article if you haven’t already. Unfortunately, ABC has dropped 538 among other things as a cost cutting measure - so their stuff is now unavailable.
Now - a week later: Two other polling aggregates show disapproval is higher than approval.
Reminder - polling aggregates weigh a bunch of different polls, all of which you can see on the pages. Definitely click through if you’d like to see - both of these include GOP funded / sourced polls in their numbers.
VoteHub Polls
Source
This one is an extremely large mover - from +17 approval to +0.4 disapproval! Wild.
RCP
Source
RCP leans conservatively, but even there - disapproval outweighs approval now. And it is +0.7 disapproval (which is higher than VoteHub).
You marry these numbers with the weaker than expected jobs numbers that recently came out…. you have a rough situation.
Next I will be looking at the consumer sentiment numbers that are coming tomorrow, and some other economic indicators. Widespread tariffs just now going into effect will likely depress all of these numbers significantly over the next 3-6 weeks.
