Reason Roundup

Poll: People Like Amazon More Than Any Institution but the U.S. Military

Plus: Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, ditching tariffs could save lives, and more...

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Amazon more popular than Facebook, Twitter, and many U.S. government institutions. A new survey from The Harris Poll and the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard showcases the extreme popularity of Amazon.

As politicians continue to trash talk the online retail giant and propose new laws to break it up in the name of populism, the survey throws another blow to the idea that this is more than a politics-driven crusade.

The new poll—conducted June 15 through 17 among 2,0006 registered U.S voters—found Amazon with a higher favorability rating than all but one of the 18 institutions that surveyors asked about.

Some 72 percent of survey respondents viewed Amazon favorably. This placed it second only to the U.S. military, which was viewed favorably by 78 percent of those polled, and slightly above police, which earned a 68 percent favorability rating.

Amazon also polled more favorably than the FBI (60 percent favorability), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (58 percent), the Supreme Court (57 percent), Facebook (51 percent), the Department of Justice (49 percent), Israel (47 percent), NATO (46 percent), Black Lives Matter (45 percent), the European Union (41 percent), and Twitter (37 percent).

At the bottom of the favorability rankings were Russia (21 percent favorability), antifa (20 percent), the Palestinian Authority (19 percent), China (18 percent), and Hamas (16 percent).

The poll also looked at the public perception of current U.S. political leaders, finding net favorable ratings of President Joe Biden and mixed reviews of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden's favorability rating stood at 54 percent, with 39 percent unfavorable.

Harris polled at 43 percent favorable and 43 percent unfavorable.

That makes Biden more popular—and Harris less popular—than former President Donald Trump (46 percent favorability) and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (45 percent favorability).

None of the other political figures asked about polled at higher than 40 percent favorability. Getting close were Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (38 percent), Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis (36 percent), Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (35 percent), New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (34 percent), former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (33 percent), South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott (33 percent), and New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (31 percent).

At the lower end of the politician favorability rankings were former Attorney General William Barr (29 percent), West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (28 percent), Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley (22 percent), Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (22 percent), Russian leader Vladimir Putin (21 percent), Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (21 percent), Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (20 percent), current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (18 percent), and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (16 percent).


FREE MINDS 

Laws against teaching critical race theory are un-American, argue Kmele Foster, David French, Jason Stanley, and

https://twitter.com/jasonintrator/status/1412126854052519946


FREE MARKETS

How ditching tariffs and export restrictions could save lives:


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