Against the din of harsh right-wing talk about “taking their country back” from Democrats, Republican optimism about dramatic gains in the November elections suggests that Republicans believe voters want them making decisions more than they want Democrats and the Obama administration to continue at the nation’s helm. But a new New York Times/CBS News national poll finds just the opposite: Voters’ regard for Democrats, their policies and direction is higher than for Republicans.
Disapproval ratings were high for both parties when voters were asked if they approved of the way each party is handling its job in Congress. Yet voters’ approval/disapproval ratings for Democrats (28 percent/66 percent) are better than for Republicans (18 percent and 73 percent).
Ditto for the question on “party favorability”: Democrats got the better marks (42 percent vs. 35 percent) for party favorability, and Republicans got the worse spread on “not favorable,” 59 percent vs. 52 percent for Democrats.
Asked which team they wanted in control of Congress when they vote in November, 27 percent wanted Democrats, and 23 percent wanted Republicans. Asked who had the better ideas for solving the nation’s problems, voters again favored Democrats over Republicans, 40 percent vs. 33 percent.
The margin was significantly wider (55 percent for Democrats, 33 percent for Republicans) when voters were asked which party they think would do more to help the middle class.
Which party would be more likely to create new jobs? 44 percent of voters said Democrats would be; 38 percent of respondents said Republicans. Similarly, 49 percent of respondents said Democrats would be more likely to help small businesses, while 41 percent said Republicans would be.
Why, then, do Republicans believe they will regain power in the House, and possibly the Senate? The answer is obvious: Republicans, and particularly the right-wing tea party base, are clearly more energized and motivated than Democrats. Media attention does not generate that, but it does underscore it.
Their leaders’ talking points, however much they distort dismiss the value of the Democratic agenda the past two years, resonate with their base. Democrats, on the contrary, have been silent on their accomplishments, and some now seem to be running away from their achievements, as Charles M. Blow, among other analysts, wrote in The New York Times last week.
Reforms of health insurance and banking regulation over Republican opposition represent huge accomplishments in behalf of ordinary Americans, for example. But Democrats seem afraid to trumpet them. That’s nuts. Ending insurance restrictions on pre-existing conditions, annual and lifetime coverage, and laying plans for insurance exchanges based on competitive, community-based premiums rates will help all Americans and relieve the fear of lost or limited insurance. But many Democrats won’t proclaim that, much less challenge the Republican attackers who, in the interest of the insurance lobby, want to roll back insurance reform.
The same dynamic applies to banking reform, never mind the consumer abuses it would remedy.
Republicans have also been successful insinuating a despicable new straw issue into the campaign – Islamophobia – to obliquely target President Obama. And they’ve made it appear that rescuing the economy from another Great Depression is worse than a sound and limited plan of stimulus spending which, despite critics’ lies, worked very well to reverse the economy’s direction in the inescapable trough of a hard recovery.
Democrats may be understandably fatigued and exasperated , like their opponents, by the tough slog through the slow recovery. Still, they need to stand and fight against a retreat back to the same GOP policies and directions that left the country in the hole. More importantly, they need to inspire the younger voters who are less inclined to vote this time around that what is yet to be achieved in terms of fairness and opportunity is worth as much as what’s already been accomplished.