Dems crush GOP in new Gallup poll

September 25, 2007

Most of the recent national polls have shown widespread discontent with politicians in Washington. Both the White House and Congress are wildly unpopular, leading a lot of conservatives to boast that the new Democratic congressional majority has already lost the electorate. After all, if Americans liked what they saw from the new Democratic Congress, the institution’s approval ratings wouldn’t be so dreadfully low.

As Republican talking points go, this might sound vaguely persuasive, if it weren’t completely wrong.

Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months. That’s good news for the Democratic Party, which moved into a superior image position when compared to the Republican Party more than a year ago. Americans not only continue to view the Democratic Party more favorably than the Republican Party in general terms, but they also choose the Democratic party as the preferred party for maintaining the nation’s economic prosperity. And, in a departure from recent history, Americans see the Democrats as the political party better able to protect the country from terrorism.

The notion that Americans have cast a pox on both houses is simply wrong. According to Gallup, 53% of the country has a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, while 43% have an unfavorable opinion. For the GOP, those numbers are nearly reversed — 38% have a favorable view of Republicans, while a surprising 59% have an unfavorable take on the party.

This gap becomes even more dramatic when it comes to identifying the party of national security. I’ll give you a hint — it’s not the GOP.

security

Through this period of decline in the Republicans’ overall favorability, one enduring strength for the GOP has been the perception that it is the better party for handling international terrorism and national defense. One year after the 9/11 attacks, the Republicans had a 19-point lead over the Democrats in this area. That lead gradually sank to a statistically non-significant 2-point lead in 2006.

This year, for the first time since Gallup started asking this question in 2002, more Americans say the Democratic Party will do a better job than the Republican Party of protecting the country from security threats, 47% vs. 42%.

The conventional wisdom is slow to catch up, and if you listen to Joe Lieberman, you’re led to believe the public is deeply skeptical of Dems on national security, but if you actually ask Americans, the results (and the trends) are clear.

Chris Bowers raises a good point about the data.

Now, I have a question for liberal hawks: during the time when Democrats gained on, and eventually overtook, Republicans on national security, did Democrats become more hawkish? As I remember it, during these five years Democrats have gradually and greatly increased their opposition to things like the Iraq war, FISA and the Patriot Act. Even though we are still losing votes on those issues, we are doing a lot better than we were a few years ago.

To be sure, I suspect the numbers are trending in the Dems’ direction in part because Americans have simply rejected the Republicans’ failures. Dems are benefiting from being on the other side of a policy and philosophy that just doesn’t work.

Nevertheless, I think Chris is right. Dems have been more vocal in criticizing the war, more assertive in standing up for civil liberties and checks and balances, and more aggressive in denouncing the neocons’ worldview. And they’ve seen their numbers soar.

There’s a lesson in there, if the DC establishment is willing to notice it.

i think that the numbers expressing disappointment in congressional democrats is not because they don’t find democrats better as far as the economy and defense, but rather that the democrats aren’t doing enough to change bush’s policies.

  • as just bill suggests, the Repubs have (almost surely intentionally) misrepresented what those low Congressional approval polls have meant. CBs post above helps straighten things out.

    if you look at the internals, the drop in support for Congress since the beginning of the year has largely been a drop in support among Democrats. This certainly does not mean that the Dems responding to the polls think the Republicans would be preferable; it merely is a sign of frustration that, having elected Democratic majorities, change is not forthcoming at a suitable pace. But every one of those Dems, asked the party preference question above, will still say “Democratic.”

  • The best part of that chart, in my opinion, is the evidence that the Dems are picking up the “No Difference/No Opinion” category. If this were just a repudiation of Republican policy then wouldn’t that number be going up?

  • Of COURSE the Republicans are going to misrepresent the numbers. The numbers look bad for them, and they don’t want the numbers to get worse. If Dems made tangible steps towards accomplishing goals that the electorate wants (out of Iraq and a reformed healthcare system for starters) then the numbers would look even more dismal for the GOP.

    The American public is in the process of repudiating the GOP governing philosophy and the GOP agenda. The fact that the Democrats in Congress haven’t glommed onto this little factoid just shows how sheltered they are.

  • This running around with weapons pointed at everything that moves has had disastrous results. After all the yelling and screaming Americans see the need for calm deliberation in dealing with the major issues of our times. Remember that government corruption was the second biggest issue next to the war in the ’06 elections and the widespread abuse of power based on “national security” shows that the republicans have been less than honest and use their illegal techniques on Americans as well as suspected terrorists.
    The public is aware of the Republicans in the senate obstructing the operation of good government. If one is dishonest in one area then chances are good they are dishonest in all other areas as well. So the GOP loses credibility and the confidence of the public because they have demonstrated clearly that they are obstructionists for political reasons. that they abuse power and refuse oversight or accountability and prove they can not be trusted. At any point they could stop behaving this way but at every opportunity they merely continue or increase disruptive, dishonest, abusive behavior…even threatening to throw it off on future administrations rather than change course.

  • Despite what the media and Republicans keep telling them they are thinking ,and despite their not being plugged into the blogosphere, a lot fo people seem to be figuring out what’s going on.

  • The Republican party will soon be irrelevant. All President Bush has done is accomplish the demisre of the Republican Party quicker than what demographics alone would have done.

    The real question is how will the U.S. political system work with only one functional political party?

  • CB said : “There’s a lesson in there, if the DC establishment is willing to notice it.”

    There certainly is a lesson to be learned, but I hope that the MSM doesn’t get it, just yet. The more they make themselves look like morons, the better it will be when the Democrats finally take over the entire house, senate, and white house. By that time NOBODY should believe a word they’re saying, which will be a breath of fresh air when they finally start realizing that journalism isn’t about sticking your nose just up the Republican establishment’s backside.

    As the polls are showing – for what they’re worth – it seems that the common sense is still there in the majority of the electorate. Those dead-enders problably won’t change because that doesn’t compute.

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