According to Rasmussen polling:
For the first time in recent years, voters trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The GOP holds double-digit advantages on five of them.
Granted that this is Rasmussen, not the most credible source. But as they note, even they haven’t found this much Republican lean in years.
- 49 to 35% on economic issues
- 54 to 31% on national security
- 50 to 31% on Iraq
- 33 to 29% on government ethics
- 46% to 40 on health care
- 50% to 35% on taxes
- 43% to 38% on eductation
- 45% to 37% on Social Security?
Etc… Oh, and on healthcare?
Separate polling released today shows 49% of voters nationwide say that passing no health care reform bill this year would be better than passing the plan currently working its way through Congress.
Trying to pass an unclear dog’s breakfast, easily demonized, instead of something clear, has had its cost.
And it takes real talent to be less trusted on social security, considering Bush tried to privatize it not so long ago.
On the generic Congressional ballot, Republicans are now favored 42% to 37%. No wonder the Democratic Congress is becoming less and less willing to follow Obama’s lead. He may not have to face voters till 2012, most of them will be staring down the barrel of voter discontent in 2010.
But the worst number is this: 73% of GOP voters nationwide think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with their voting base.
In other words, Democrats are right. Republicans aren’t trusted. It’s just that Democrats are trusted even less.
Trust is earned. By making the economy work for banks and not for Americans; by refusing to put through a clean health care bill; by repeatedly not coming through on campaign promises and by not providing a clear alternative to Republicans, Democrats have lost the trust of Americans.
If Democrats want to turn this around they should simply start doing what they should have always done. Break up the big banks, institute real bankruptcy reform and other help for real Americans, pass a medicare-for-all bill, get out of Afghanistan and push through a real and effective stimulus bill immediately paid for it with a tax on America’s rich.
If not, as I’ve been saying for some time, they will pay a heavy price in 2010. Americans expect results for them, not mealy mouthed platitudes, trillions for the rich and broken promises.
Lex
And from the way i hear young people talking, the demographic that was supposed to make Democrats ascendant for a generation may well vanish before 2010…much less 2012.
I do not think that it’s a matter of unrealistic expectations (and if those are the major factor it’s Obama’s fault in any case). It’s a matter of feeling ignored and betrayed, while still getting emails begging for money and support.
My rep held his election night (victory) party here rather than his home town because, he said, “I’ve never seen such activism and participation by young people. I wanted to be here to share this with the people who did so much work.”
I don’t see that situation being repeated. And if it doesn’t, it will be Obama/the Democrats greatest failure.
Lex
BDBlue
It will be interesting if what comes of all of this is a complete collapse in confidence of both parties. People have generally swung back and forth, but I wonder if the problems aren’t so great and the actions by both parties so underwhelming that we won’t end up in a place where most Americans simply don’t like or trust (or possibly even identify with either party). If we get there, what happens then?
Mandos
BDBlue: Unless it’s accompanied by some mechanism to start a third party, likely nothing. Low voter turnout, and WaPo editorials defending the proposition that low voter turnout means that only the smart people are voting…
Mandos
But this all shows me that polls often aren’t worth a lot. It totally matters how you ask the questions. We can go from a poll on the Real Existing Public Option that says support holds up, to a poll in which Democrats fall short on that very issue.
I saw Michael Moore’s Capitalism, yesterday. I was impressed (and also impressed by the number of people in the theatre for a movie that is almost out of the box office). Michael Moore is a master propagandist, and I’m glad he’s on “our” side. He got three priests to tell him that capitalism was evil, said the s-word (“socialism”), and strike the right notes on everything from trade to Obama (very guarded optimism, almost optimism-as-rebuke).
BDBlue
That’s true at first, Mandos. But I wonder how long a government can exist like that with growing inequality without turning repressive and authoritarian (or more repressive and authoritarian, depending on your perspective). I don’t think it’s forever.
tjfxh
A recent Gallup pollfound that independents are switching from a Dem to a GOP preference.
“It’s the economy, stupid.” The economy is still deteriorating for most people, and they are seeing Wall Street being bailed out but not Main Street. As a result, this is now being seen more and more as the Obama recession instead of Bush’s legacy. There is an incredible amount of populist anger building, and people are fed up with both the Dem and GOP establishments, and “business as usual” instead of doing the people’s business.
The chances of a W or L shaped recession are looking much more likely than a V. Even if it is a V as defined by GDP, it will not be a jobless recovery as much as a job-loss recovery. The improvements so far have come from reducing costs, including labor. A whole raft of jobs just aren’t coming back, and new high or even medium wage jobs aren’t being created. The hiring is in lower wage service jobs, so underemployment is increasing along with unemployment. This portends to be a structural problem for the US, which is bad for the party in power unless it is perceived as doing something about it.
BDBlue
And the frustrating thing is that, even though most Americans agree with liberal programs (love Medicare, HOLC polled highly IIRC, tax increase on corporations and the wealthy polls highly), the only people trying to capitalize on the populist anger is Republicans. Now, they’re falsely trying to capitalize on it, but at least they are accurately reading the mood of the people (pissed off). The Dems just blithely go along without offering even any populist bullshit figleaves to cover their corporate giveaways (well, I guess the “public option” qualifies, but that figleaf will fail the minute people try to enroll).
Curmudgeon
Leaving aside Rasmussen’s GOP links (IIRC they’re Scafie funded) for a moment, their data speaks volumes about how dysfunctional American politics have become. The choice between the Democrats and GOP is a choice between a party which won’t do anything to fix America’s problems and a party that only makes America’s problems worse.
Running to the GOP because the Democrats aren’t doing anything positive is like sawing your leg off with a rusty hacksaw because your broken leg isn’t healing fast enough. It’s absurd. A polity that produces these kind of outcomes is broken on such a fundamental level that reform is impossible.
lambert strether
I overheard a 20-something the other day on the flu pandemic; she was of the opinion that the administration declared it to help out the Chinese vaccination companies. True or not, a straw in the wind on the OFA population (who, let us remember Obama did not call out for “health care” “reform.”