Democrats still searching for a silver lining to the waxing they took last Tuesday can cheer up a bit. According to a new poll, the public may already be experiencing a bit of buyer’s remorse about the choices they’ve made, and Republicans seem to have unrealistic expectations about what their leaders will be able to accomplish.
A poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center found that people are considerably less happy about the Republicans’ victory than they were about the Democrats’ victory in 2006 or about the Republicans’ victory in 1994. They also approve much less of the “Republicans’ policies and plans for the future” than they did of the Democrats’ plans in 2006 or the Republicans’ plans in 1994. (I must say that that question threw me a bit because I didn’t know that Republicans had “policies and plans” for the future. Silly me.)
About 60 percent of the respondents thought that the Republicans in 1994 and the Democrats in 2006 would be successful in getting their programs passed into law. This year, just more than 40 percent believed this about the Republicans. In fact, unlike in 2008 and 2006, more people than not believed that relations between Republicans and Democrats in Washington would now get worse.
That doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement to me. It sounds like a Congress of Low Expectations.
Furthermore, about half of the respondents said that President Obama still should take the lead in solving the nation’s problems. Only 39 percent said the same about Bill Clinton in 1994 and only 29 percent said so about George W. Bush in 2006. This seems to be at odds with what Republican respondents want. By more than 2 to 1, Republicans think that their leaders should “stand up to Obama” as opposed to working with him, and most think that those leaders should stick to their positions as opposed to making compromises. (This is stunning. Compromise is how democracies function. Are they saying that they don’t want a functioning democracy?)
And Republicans seem to think that their positions should become even more extreme. While most Democrats, and those who lean Democratic, appear to think that Democratic leaders should move in a more moderate direction, most Republicans and their leaners think that the Republicans should move in a more conservative direction.
Now that sounds like a Congress of Few Achievements.
At some point, the rubber must meet the road. Republicans will have to give some ground to gain some. This is not likely to sit well with their far-right constituents who prefer constant paralysis to compromise-built progress.
This situation has impending disappointment written all over it.
Posted By: Richard Kigel
Saturday, November 13th 2010 at 12:27PM
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