Falling GOP Continues Dragging Dems Down

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Aug 02, 2009 at 21:30


At the end of June, I wrote:

GOP Still Falling, But Dragging Dems Down, Too

Democrats are still quite popular in the Northeast and unpopular in the South, but they've lost significant ground in the West and Midwest since late February, four months ago, even though Republicans, who are far less popular, continue losing popularity as well.  If the GOP's intention is to disgust people with politics, in direct opposition with Obama's attempt to bring sweetness and light, the GOP seems to be succeeding--and Democrats in general are paying the price, both in party popularity, and in the popularity of congresional Democrats.  

The last DKos weekly poll in July shows more of the same.  Here are the latest figures, showing Congressional Democrats barely hanging on to a net favorability of +3 outside the South, with the party itself at  -3 favorability naitonwide.  Nobody likes the GOP outside the South--12% favorable is the best they can do regionally, but now the Dems have lost almost all their regional net favorability:

And here are the changes from late June, which show both parties losing support almost equally:

Paul Rosenberg :: Falling GOP Continues Dragging Dems Down
Here's how things stood in late February, with the Dems strong everywhere outside the South, both as a party and in Congressional support.  Even in the South, the Dems' net favorability was close to the GOP's (within 4 points in Congress and 10 points in party favorability):


And here's how things have changed since then:

The Dems party favorability has plummeted in the West and Midwest as well as the South. The Reps have lost 10 points more in the Midwest, while the losses are even in the West. Dem losses in congressional approval have been less extreme--but then, there was less to lose, and an 18 point drop in the West can't be seen as anything else but very bad news.

Give the utter disintegration of the GOP, who are now at the point of babbling incoherent conspiracy theories, the fact that the Dems have lost roughly the same amount of ground since February can only be seen as a sign of dramatic policy and message failure in the face of no serious political opposition.

This is not just Open Left opinion here. These numbers are terrible.  If the GOP still existed as anything vaguely resembling a political party, people would be quivering in their boots.  But if the Dems can't stop falling apart like this soon, there won't be that much difference between the two former parties by the time of the 2010 elections.

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Falling GOP Continues Dragging Dems Down | 18 comments
The lesson the Dems will learn from this (4.00 / 4)
no doubt is that they have moved to far to the "left", and need to regain the "center". And the corporate media will have no end of pundits espousing that view 24-7. The Hegemony of Versailles won't entertain any opposing view.

One can only hope the Progressive Caucus will stand strong and not allowed themselves to be rolled on this one, because it's coming for sure.  

They never get it (4.00 / 2)

 The Obama admin has done a ton of right-wing stuff, like throwing money at Wall Street, ignoring Bush/Cheney's war crimes, expanded the surveillance state, sucking up to evangelicals, and weakening their major policy proposals for the sake of attracting Republican votes (which didn't come anyway)... and they're still Socialists.

 You know, Barack, since they're going to call you a Socialist anyway, you might as well act like one on occasion. You might be surprised...  

   

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

[ Parent ]
Can you say "populist backlash" (4.00 / 1)
This is not going to end well.

Think I'll watch "Meet John Doe" again.

um ... is 'populist' ONLY right wing ?? (0.00 / 0)
I discovered only in the last few months that many of the left / blog-o-topia assume that populist is right wing --

I know that PART of the populist stuff which has happened has been right wing, BUT, that is only cuz our FAKE ass diversity loving lefties can only handle certain kinds of group think, and look down their elitist fuck noses at some fire breathing class warfare.

The wealthy & powerful SHOULD fear that after they screw 1000 or 10,000 or 100,000,000 of us, there will be THOUSANDS of people outside their door making a human a cordon to the local jail cell, where they're gonna start their life sentence of wearing orange, ankle shackles, and picking up trash.

rmm.



It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way

[ Parent ]
All the Republicans need... (4.00 / 4)

 ...is a charismatic faux-populist (a la Huckabee) whom the establishment allows to sound pro-public-interest  without actually being pro-public interest.

  When that happens, the Democrats are toast. As is the country.

  Paul Von Hindenberg was quite the bipartisan guy, himself...  

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

Heh - yeah, but (0.00 / 0)
they'll have to do better than Sarah Palin, and find someone not as outwardly religious as Huckabee because despite what the corporate media says, that scares away too much of the mainstream. Jindal's already tanked himself, and I think Newt will have problems finding enough people to jump on his smelly bandwagon to make him a serious contender. I wonder if Mitt thinks this may be his big opportunity, or if he's had enough of spending his personal fortune on a national campaign?

It'll be interesting (in a morbid kind of way) to see what "fresh" face the rethugs trot out to save us from the "Obama" Depression.

[ Parent ]
I'm keeping an eye on Rand Paul (0.00 / 0)
Regardless of what you may think of his dad's politics, the fact is that Ron Paul been true to his beliefs, through the years. If Rand Paul conducts himself as faithfully as his father has, this could be real interesting. I think the opportunism of a Sarah Palin will suffer in comparison to the sincerity of a Paul.

It's goofy to think that righies are any less sick of being lied to than lefties. They may fall for lies more often than lefties, but feeling betrayed - once they've figured out you've been betrayed - can't feel good for anybody.

435 Dem Primaries 2012
Coffee Party Usa
TheRealNews.Com

[ Parent ]
We gave them a majority (4.00 / 4)
My take on these numbers is that Democrats campaigned and fundraised on the promise that if given a Dem majority and the Executive branch, then those long desired progressive agenda items like health care reform would be realized.

In contrast, what we've seen in the health care debate is that a scattered regional party on the wrong side of public opinion with no real leadership outside of nut jobs on cable and talk radio handily winning the debate and message war. Simultaneously we're seeing those within the Democratic party (Blue Dogs) undermining their own party interests and their own president.

The lack of the Dems ability to articulate a consistent message and own the debate when 76% of Americans favor this issue is mind boggling. I think we are seeing the results of this in the favorability ratings.

I'm happy to see the Dems pivot the message away from "health care reform" to a focus on the insurance industry. By focusing on "health care" the GOP has easily tied this to favorability and familiarity with one's doctor. While most Americans might like their health care provider, no one I know likes their insurance company, nor their putting profit first or their practices of exclusion, delay and denial of coverage in pursuit of profit. Hopefully the Dems can tie the GOP to corporate insurance interests and in so doing get something done that the American people elected them to do.

Prairie State Blue Covering Illinois Democratic politics.

. (4.00 / 1)
There's no reason for the ruling party to keep high approval ratings during a recession. Especially not when the trajectory is still down.
I don't really get the big deal (4.00 / 1)
we saw this in 2007 too...it's an off year election thing, nobody's taking sides until stuff gets done that they can base their vote on...only the bases are taking sides.

Now in a year, numbers like this would be a story.  

Me neither: Generic Ballot Still Solid (0.00 / 0)
On election day, the Research 2000/Daily Kos poll had Democrats +9 on the generic ballot.

This week's poll?

Democrats +10

But, but, but, but they're SLIPPING!!!

Don't overreact.  I expect a good solid heath care bill to emerge out of the House and Senate and ultimately arrive on the President's desk.  And I'm hopeful that the economy will continue to show signs of improvement and be in much better shape next year when it comes time to vote again.

People may not be as supportive of the Democratic party as they were earlier in the year, but I'm fairly confident they sure as hell don't want to go back to Republican rule and I believe that ultimately every one will realize that the President is doing the best he can to turn around this economy and move the country back into the right direction.

I'll end with this short segment from President Obama's 2008 Election Day speech, which fits in fairly nicely given what's happened the last few months and what lies ahead:

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won"t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can"t solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it"s been done in America for 221 years-block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.


[ Parent ]
That's exactly what they won by (0.00 / 0)
9 points...53%-44%.  
[ Parent ]
Obama and the Blue Dogs are doing it to themselves. (4.00 / 2)
Bush and the Republicans are gone.  They are about as influential to the political scene as Mars being in retrograde.

Leave it to Obama and the Democrats to screw up a mandate.
Democrats are why Republicans win.    

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

If you stand for nothing (4.00 / 2)
Then no one will stand with you. Not that there aren't Dems who do stand for things, good things, and do so fiercly. But most Dems are, rightly I think, seen as standing for very little, so it's no wonder that the public doesn't respect them. Which is infuriating, because if they DID stand for something, the public would rally to them in large numbers, I believe.

They seriously need to ask themselves, what is more important to them, corporate money, or popular support. To me, it's obvious that they need the latter far more than the former, and that the former is vastly overrated. But if they keep running after the former, then they will continue to lose respect and ground, and deservedly so. And I suspect that they know it. And, yet, they just can't kick the habit. So we're going to have to force them to go cold turkey, via small donation-funded outsider primary challenges that scare the shit out of them.

Baucus, Reid, Conrad, Boyd, Nelson--they've got to be made examples of.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything...Mankind are forever destined to be the dupes of bold & cunning imposture" -- Alexander Hamilton

Time to Bail out the GOP? (0.00 / 0)
The party of Lincoln is obviously too big to fail. As indicated above, the collapse of the GOP has put at risk our entire poltical system as it pulls the Democratic Party down with it. Just like we were told that the failure of AIG would do to the world economy.


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."
I Gotta Say (0.00 / 0)
I'm not surprised by the low Dem numbers.  We're in a shit-tastic economy, and it's been 7 months since we got our new president; where's our unicorns?!?  If things turn around, Dem numbers will become less bad.

I am surprised at how awfully unpopular the GOP is.  As discouraging as the Dem numbers are, holy crap, it must SUCK to be a GOP activist.  - 53?!  That's atrocious, it's not even in the same league as - 3!

So even though Dem numbers are bad, people aren't going over to the Republicans.  From a political standpoint, I'm not worried.  I am worried that Dem policy will become more "centrist", as Oaktown Girl said in the first comment.

Couldn't get past the title. (0.00 / 0)
The eViL rethugs are dragging the virtuous Dems down. It has nothing at all to do with the actions of the D leadership -- expanding the cheneybush police state, wars, and bailouts of the thieves on Wall Street; siding with Harry and Louise and Big Pharma on health care; betraying labor on card-check, etc.
Not My Meaning At All (4.00 / 1)
The Dems are being dragged down precisely because they let themselves be, rather than setting their own course, and solving the problems the GOP has created.

Sorry this was not clear enough to suit your tastes.  But I was aiming this at the denialists--such as several of the posters above.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

[ Parent ]
Falling GOP Continues Dragging Dems Down | 18 comments





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