Second Poll Finds That Approval For GOP Leaders Has Plummeted — Among Republicans
One thing we’ve been chronicling here is the increasing disillusionment that Republicans are experiencing with their own party’s Congressional leadership, and a new poll today finds that approval for GOP leaders is dropping among Republicans with astonishing speed.
That’s the second poll with such a finding. The other day I flagged a Rasmussen poll finding that Republican leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are viewed favorably by only a minority of GOP voters.
Today a new Pew poll confirms that this isn’t an outlier. Check out these numbers buried in here (click to enlarge):
The approval rating of GOP leaders among Republicans has plummeted 12 points in a month, down from 55% in February to a minority of 43% now. That’s striking.
Not only that, but approval of GOP leaders overall has dropped to 28% overall — the lowest rating for GOP leaders in 12 years of Pew polling.
In fact, approval of Republican congressional leaders has fallen from 34% in February to 28% currently, the lowest rating for GOP leaders in nearly 14 years of Pew Research surveys.
Why is this happening? Is it general lack of morale among Republicans? Is it that GOP voters are frustrated that their leaders haven’t succeeded in blocking Obama’s agenda? Or could it be that the Dem strategy of using Rush Limbaugh to drive a wedge between die-hard partisan Republicans and those who want to see Obama succeed is working? Something is turning Republicans against their own leadership — in big numbers.
Separately, the poll also finds that Obama’s approval rating has slipped a bit amid doubts about certain aspects of Obama’s agenda. But the big movement here appears to be about the GOP.
Update: A third poll is confirming this trend. The weekly poll commissioned from Research 2000 by Daily Kos finds that minorities of Republicans view Boehner and McConnell favorably, with Boehner’s numbers falling particularly fast.
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Too bad I didn’t hold my anti-Repug rant until this thread.
IF this keeps up, however, I think we’ll see Republicans running as Democrat-Lite all over the country in ‘10 and again in ‘12. That’s how the Democrats responded to the opposite situation.
Or maybe they will stay true to themselves and dwindle down to a small group of extremists and just stay there for the next couple of generations.
Hard to know right now – they’re in such chaos.
O, and hell if I know what’s bugging the Republican electorate – I can’t figure those people out. The only thing I can think is that it’s the Economy, Stupid! It’s really effecting most everybody in a very scary way.
the economy seems like a fair bet. this is really volatile movement — requires a major impetus.
Among the GOOPer electorate, it seems that the wingnuts are a very big minority. (Maybe 40 to 45 percent?) But they’re vocal, and they’ve captured the party. Suggestions that the GOP may actually be Whigging out sound more and more plausible.
I’d guess that’s a result of Treasury getting punk’d over and over again by AIG et al. and showing no backbone whatsoever.
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I’d recommend a measure similar to what was done at State: Appoint Paul Volcker as special envoy to Wall Street. Let him go in there and crack a few heads.
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The anti-EFCA argument that the bill takes away the secret ballot which protects workers from union thugs is really hard to swallow. It plays on stereotypes and an ignorance of how organizing really works. For me, this comes down to leverage. Businesses want to force a secret ballot because THEY, not the unions, can intimidate/fire/threaten/etc. workers in to voting against a union. After all, they have all the power. What can union organizers do if someone says “no thanks, I don’t want to sign a card”? The anti-EFCA forces want you to think that all union organizers are thugs who will beat you up if you don’t sign their cards when the reality is, union organizers have a hard enough time just talking to most employees at large corporations.
I’d guess that’s a result of Treasury getting punk’d over and over again by AIG et al. and showing no backbone whatsoever.
The MSM isn’t helping. Not one bit.
this is really volatile movement
Well Greg, it’s kind of hard to know what is causing it. It’s hard for me to gage the effect of the Limbaugh as head of the party thing, for example. I don’t know how to measure that since I don’t know for sure who is a Limbaugh fan and who isn’t. I can’t tell if Republicans are trending against the party because it is too extreme or not extreme enough. The Republicans set that one up for themselves, too. There’s very little middle road in the Republican Party these days. I believe it’s because the party is too extreme and there are a lot of moderate Republican voters who have become disaffected by the extremism.
But at bottom, the economy is the biggest thing on everybody’s radar screen, so maybe a poll needs to be done to break this trend down a little and find out what is bothering Republican voters.
I’d like to think that it’s because the portion of sane people who remain in the Republican party are disgusted that in the current dire circumstances for the country and the world, their leadership are only interested in partisan advantage, rather than contributing to solutions. But I’ve always been an optimist.
i’m guessing that the fact the gop leadership has been mia in presenting any kind of answer for the economy beyond the inadequate “more tax cuts” is catching up with them…
I’m simply disgusted by Congress. I think the republicans have sunk themselves.. however.. word of warning.. the dems are not far behind.
Murtha, Rangel, Dodd – they are at risk for becoming what they fought against, and that what tipped the balance to their favor.
This is really cute. Democratic readers sounding off about Republican leaders from a hugely unpopular Democratic Congress. Of course they’re not popular! They’re seen as part of the problem. What do you folks think Pelosi and Reid are seen as? Part of the solution?
There’s a reason SarahPAC is starting to eat into the RNC’s money numbers. You idiots think that this is just about Republicans. You’re in for a huge surprise.
The GOP rightwing extremism is scaring voters away from their party. Cowboy diplomacy is no longer acceptable. Catering to corporate interest at the expense of our jobs is unacceptable. The rich that benefited from Bush’s tax cuts, did not help grow our economy. Trickle down does not work. Tax cuts are irreverent when their is so much unemployment. It is time to invest in America. If republicans do not like the direction of this country because they do not want to see it grow into the 21st century, they are free to move to any country of their choosing. Unfortunately for our democracy, the GOP hypocrisy and stubbornness is destroying our two party system.