There's quite a bit to chew on in the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, but of particular interest was the gap between the parties on the major issues of the day. Fred Yang, who conducted the poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, said, "If the president needs some tweaks and adjustments, the Republican Party is pretty much in need of a major makeover.... The Republicans don't need a silver lining; they need a whole new playbook."
The same poll, it's worth noting, showed Republicans have an advantage on the reducing the deficit, "controlling" government spending, and national defense, but on every domestic policy issue -- including taxes and looking out for the middle class -- Democrats enjoy the edge.
For all of the efforts on the party of the political establishment to "blame both sides," the public, at least for now, seems capable of preferring one over the other.
What's more, the public doesn't even think much of the GOP's efforts. Respondents were asked whether the parties are "emphasizing unifying the country in a bipartisan way or emphasizing a partisan approach in a way that does not unify the country." For President Obama, 45% see a leader focusing on unity, while only 22% say the same about Republicans.
On a related note, the Pew Research Center also released a new poll yesterday, finding some related results that raised eyebrows.
The Pew poll found the Republican Party's image "at a historic low," driven in part by the GOP's extremism.
It's one thing for the American mainstream to think a political party is wrong or to prefer one side to the other. But this suggests the radicalization of the Republican Party in recent years has not gone unnoticed -- a majority of the country considers the GOP "too extreme."
When the party starts hurting the country on purpose later this week through sequestration cuts, these figures are likely to get worse.
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39% think Democrats are too extreme and the GOP is open for change. My respect for America grows: Every other country would crash immediately under such an amount of blockheads. Germany couldn't even withstand 32% Nazis...
To explain the GOP's openness to change, they mean "I'm open to you changing my tax rate to zero, changing my freedom to buy elections anonymously, and changing my country club back to "Whites only.""
All politics are local. like economies. The voters in this nation have to start making the changes in the local governments; city coucils and mayors, county commissioners, state senators and house members, then US Senators and Congressmen. Obama will be long gone but Lindsey Graham, Eric Castor Oil Cantor and John Drunk Boehner will still be there. Boehner has been there through 3 Presidents and McConnell has been there through 5 Presidents and nearly 30 years and McCain has been there 31 years. All of these men have been on a government check their entire adult lives.
@1.2 - And that's exactly why WE need term limits for Congress. Anytime you have someone in public office for 30 yrs., it means that they haven't changed their thinking enough to understand exactly what's going on in this nation. And that's exactly why the GOTP Congress can get away with behaving like power crazed 13 yr. olds on steroids.
Sorry, Zora Renee, but you have your head in a not-too-nice place on this one. If you want to see the harm of term limits, look no further than California, where politicians who haven't been there long enough to know where the public restrooms are, try to make policy on issues they barely understand, forcing them to rely on the "experts" - the people who are there for years: the lobbyists.
I used to work for a guy who ended up in the legislature for 30 years. Willie Brown. Had California listened to him 40 years ago instead of watching Governor Moonbeam date rock stars, we wouldn't have the fiscal disaster we ended up re-electing the guy who caused it, to cure it. Government in California was better when we had people who had been there long enough to understand it making the laws.
Gov. Brown didn't 'cause' the problems in our state government. Prop 13 and term limits were specifically designed as a rebuke to his power. Brown didn't have a hand in them.
TC, don't get me wrong, first off I think that there are a few very good Congress critters that have been there awhile and understand what's going on. On the other hand we have too many still in office trying to yank US back to the 19th century, then there are the "know-nothings" who with every utterance convince me they know nothing about how the government is supposed to work, or what their job really entails - these are people that will sit in Congress for years defeating any meaningful progressive legislation that might help the American people. So while it might be helpful to have people around for a while, what I've seen especially over the last several years is that there are far more that haven't a clue and need to have term limits to help get them out of office.
You do know that 89% of all stastistics are made up right?
Changing their whale blubber base ain't gonna do it for those folks! -Kevo
And yet, the GOP will continue to blather on that it's how the message is delivered, not the message itself. Much like pounding a square peg into a round hole, the GOP's answer is to get a bigger hammer and pound harder. Thankfully, the American public at large seems to be catching on.
The American public may be catching on, but the destructive r's are working hard to undermine the voting system and rig elections in order to offset that awareness.
Take nothing for granted. They've already proven that they can create majorities of their termite representatives despite a more aware electorate voting against them.
And the ongoing effort to change how electoral votes in various states are counted emphasizes the crappy r's allegiance to scamming elections over acknowledging the will of the people.
The American public needs to catch on to the systematic degradation of it's electoral processes.
Agreed. They think it's a "marketing" problem. Which shows how out of touch THEY are. Except, of course, they feel compelled to figure out the marketing, because their bosses aren't the people of their districts, merely the "consumers" of what the big business interests are selling. Of course, when people still refuse to buy rat poison as a "digestive aid", then you refer to plan B, which is to try and rig the markets so there's nothing BUT rat poison to buy.
The republicans used to be a mean messaging machine. Luntz must be falling down on the job or even he can't camouflage their extremism.
I don't think anyone can camouflage it anymore. The tea party Republicans are the same old extreme RWers we've always had but now they are unleashed and have been nursing hyper outsized feelings of persecution and senses of entitlement.
When they rant about 'we the people' and vow to 'take [their] country back,' they are not including all citizens in their definition of 'the people,' or the Real Americans, and they want to take us all back to the times when only certain groups had a say in how things were run.
Witness today's scotus challenge to the VRA. The state of Alabama actually cites the election of an African American as supposed 'proof' that racism is no longer a problem with regards to voting rights.
They can no longer hide their ever inflating extremism relative to the rest of the country and they certainly won't change their views. All that's left is to cook up conspiracy theories about how the left indoctrinates and brainwashes the dupes who make up most of the country.
Luntz is one of the people who turned the R's extremism loose. Language matters. Perception matters. Reality matters more.
lipstick and pigs my friends....
I do believe that Abraham Lincoln was correct: you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
The question is, "Can they fool a majority of the people some of the time?" Once they get in power they change the rules, re-draw the lines and cheat in every way possible. Then it is almost impossible to get them out. I live in Texas. Voter suppression was alive and well here. It didn't count much in the Presidential race, but it did in local races. I have no doubt Mr. Obama would have received many thousands additional votes had blacks been able to exercise their right to vote.
Yup. They just need to fool the majority of people in most of their gerrymandered districts.
By giving voice to the extremists in their base, the GOP has unwittingly turned us into a Center-Left country. That's because extremists are ugly, no matter the issue.
They're doing it to themselves. Who wants to shed a tear?
Not I. Let them wallow in the mire they have created.
well here`s to hoping that many republicans have tasted the tea and found it to be pretty crappy!
Rochester12, the current Tea Party seems to forget that in the original Boston Tea Party it was the tea itself that got tossed overboard.
The Original Tea Party event in Boston Harbor was a protest against Corporate Monopoly, not individual rights. And it was motivated by the unfairness of Tax decreases for imported tea, not tax increases in domestic product.
Today's TEA Party (laughingly renamed "Taxed Enough Already") has no understanding of taxes, or history. They're a bunch of scared, angry rubes. Period.
Tea does taste pretty crappy when steeped too long. And this Tea Party has been steeping for WAY too long.
Rochester12 - "They're a bunch of scared, angry rubes being led and manipulated by the John Birchers, the NRA and the likes of the Koch brothers." Trumped-up fear is a toxin on the body politic.
The GOP has run on fear for the last fifty years. After the end of WWII the USSR was the boogieman that meant vast amounts of money spent on defense.
The Soviet threat is gone, but defense spending is still on the increase. Now it is "Islam". The Bush Administration gave us the Shoe Bomber and Homeland Security. How many dastardly plots have either occurred or been foiled? Very few, but those billions are going into many of the same pockets that "kept us safe" from the Russians for decades.
Well--security confiscated some of my 3 oz. toilet articles on a recent trip because the plastic bag I had them in was 2 inches too large. Y'all feel better now, ya hear???
Republicans say it's not their policies , messaging is the problem. When your message is tax cuts for the wealthy , to hell with poor, middle class,women and seniors,what do they expect.
And yet, the worldview of the tea party Republicans depends on them not allowing themselves to recognize this simple truth, as do the paychecks of the
carnival barkersopinion leaders who keep them enraged because SQUIRREL!!!And if people were actually paying full attention, Democrats would be ahead on these issues, as well.
Ah well, beggars can't be choosers, I guess. At least some eyes are finally opening.
Republicans have an advantage on the reducing the deficit, "controlling" government spending, and national defense,
and they almost catch up to Democrats on taxes and economy.
I find this pretty disturbing actually. given how really really bad the GOP has been on these issues, this is very concerning. I think the Democratic party needs a serious message makeover when it comes to these issues. it's time to open people's eyes to the fact that the Dems are not only much better on social issues, they're much much better on economic and defense issues.
as long as the perception is that the GOP is better on economic and defense issues, the GOP will remain competitive. the Dem need to start a Battleground Economy together with Battleground Texas
Maybe some folks are waking up to the fact that Repub actions don't match their words. To say you support the middle class and then push for lower taxes on only the wealthy has come back to bite them.
Maybe they should just finally say out loud "We are taking our flat balls and going home"....
Wherever that is, probably on the "other" side of the tracks. I've been there.... I'll NEVER go back.
Unfortunately the koolaid drinkers in the GOP will look at this poll and say it is a libtard scam created by Obama and his Kenyan , socialist, Marxist, communists. You will not convince the frogs that the water is getting hotter in this pot because they think that this is a normal cyclical weather pattern
.
"The same poll, it's worth noting, showed Republicans have an advantage on the reducing the deficit, "controlling" government spending, and national defense, but on every domestic policy issue -- including taxes and looking out for the middle class -- Democrats enjoy the edge."
I know this may be nitpicky, but please, if you're going to make a chart of the data, include all the data on the chart. Don't just include the stuff that proves your point and mention parts you don't like in a footnote. If the over-all data side with the Dems, great; but we're supposed to be the "reality-based community," not just the community of "realities we feel like emphasizing."
Agreed. You still make a strong point, but show the categories where Republicans have the perceived edge in the public eye.
Now, whether people who believe the Republicans are better at those things are being realistic or not is a different question. :)
This may be encouraging, but it won't hold as long as voters let themselves be manipulated by the meritocracy/financial oligarchy - left!right! red!blue! dem!rep! liberal!conserv.! Every 2 years there is the opportunity to weed out those corrupted bums, with a voting record, against a balanced social-minded society and good government. It doesn't have to be Utopia/Eldorado, it just has to be fair as in JUST-Equitable-IMPARTIAL.
' a balanced social-minded society'
Bear in mind that there is a section of society that is comprised of unbalanced witch hunting evangelical racist idiots.
Dems need to embrace the legalization of marijuana. It will be the end of the GOP.
The GOP is for that too. Only special interests keep it illegal...
I'm sure we have all seen English speaking people trying to make themselves understood by a non English speaking person. They change their cadence, raising their voices and sounding out each word emphatically, thinking this will magically help them be understood.
If you ask people in other countries about this , they say those using this method makes them come off like dorks, and that it doesn't help with comprehension at all. What the Republicans fail to understand, is that when they say things that they clearly don't believe, they also come off like dorks. Changing the way they say things isn't going to help at all.
Balance and compromise is gone. Too bad the Tea Party extremists are allowed to caucus with Republicans (and the Republicans give way) - to the detriment of the GOP and the USA.
- GOP Open to Change? That's not part of the definition of the word "conservative". I smell a badly worded poll.
(I can only believe that Senators and Congressmen who voted against VAWA are in support of violence against women.)
The Tea Party is not it's own registered party. All the Tea Party elected Reps and Senators were elected as Republicans. This is what is particularly galling about the "Tea Party" they are trying to pass themselves off as a third party but simply aren't. They hide behind the credibility of the G.O.P. on the ballot even though they really aren't interested in the standard Republican platform while being objectionable in itself, is tame when compared to the extreme nuttiness of the "Tea Party". I would suggest that anytime someone mentions the "Tea Party" that they place the name in quotes so as to diminish the credibility of their movement, because that's what it deserves.
The Republicans have their own Goebbels in Fox News and commentators , so called journalists. They operate on the Goebbels successful premise that if you tell a lie long enough and with enough conviction, people will believe anything, no matter how preposteruos.
And yet we still see news of GOP lawmakers who doubt the President's birthplace. We still get news of GOP lawmakers saying there should be no citizenship for people who have been working hard to improve their life? We still hear news of GOP lawmakers who will prevent women from getting the health care the law says they deserve. We still hear of GOP lawmakers who want "creationism" taught in our public schools as valid science.
So GOP, how's that "gotta stop being the party of stupid" makeover thingy goin' for ya', huh?
Yep, it's yet another case of Steve Benen trying to manipulate data and make his own news instead of reporting facts and making a comment like a responsible journalist.