Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Are Voters Belatedly Waking Up to GOP Extremism?

Thanks to the abject failure of the Congressional Democrats and the spineless occupant of the White House, the GOP did disturbingly well in the 2010 Congressional elections. Now, a new Public Policy Polling poll suggests that many voters - especially independents - are waking up to the fact that they were not only sold a false bill of goods but also that they put the inmates in charge of the asylum known as Congress. Some of us have to bite our tongues not to scream out "I told you so!" One can only hope that the GOP will continue to alienate voters at the brisk rate that they have done so over the last few months. I particularly like the responses to these two questions:
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Q6 Would you describe the Democratic Party more
as mainstream or extremist?

Mainstream..................................................... 46%
Extremist......................................................... 39%
Not sure .......................................................... 15%
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Q7 Would you describe the Republican Party more
as mainstream or extremist?

Mainstream..................................................... 40%
Extremist........................................... 48%
Not sure .......................................................... 12%
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Here are some interesting highlights from the summary of the results:
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PPP's newest national poll finds that after a little more than 3 months in charge House Republicans have fallen so far out of favor with the American public that it's entirely possible Democrats could take control of the House back next year.
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43% of voters think that House Republicans are doing a worse job now than the Democrats did, compared to only 36% who think the GOP has brought an improvement. 19% think things are about the same. 62% of voters thinking that the Republicans have either made things worse or brought no improvement to an already unpopular Congress does not bode particularly well for the party.
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46% of voters say that if there was an election for Congress today they would vote Democratic, compared to only 41% who would vote Republican. That five point advantage for Democrats is only a hair below the margin Republicans won by in the national popular vote last year.
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The key to this strong movement back toward the Democrats right now is the same as the key to the strong movement away from the Democrats last year- fickle independents quickly growing unhappy with the party in power. Exit polls showed independents supporting the GOP by a 19 point margin last year at 56-37. Now only 30% of those voters think that the Republican controlled House is moving things in the right direction, compared to 44% who think things were better with the Democrats.
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I am less than please with what the Democrats did during their two wasted years in power. However, given the lunatics and religious extremists now dictating GOP policies, the Democrats don't look so bad in retrospect.

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