Jun 30 2007
Us vs. them
CNN: It’s the people vs. the government.
Hardly news. It’s been that way for a long time now; at least since January of 2001.
What is interesting in this article is that, however bad the Democratic majority may be, people still prefer it to a Republican majority…
A solid majority says it’s good for the country that the Democratic Party is in control of Congress. Even though they’re doing a lousy job? Yes.
People think, OK, the Democrats aren’t so great. But the Republicans are worse.
Just a bare majority of Americans now holds a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party (51 percent). But only 36 percent like the Republicans. That’s the Republican Party’s second-lowest rating in 15 years. Only in December 1998, when the Republican Congress voted to impeach President Clinton, were Republicans held in lower regard.
If the Democrats can just figure a way around the obstructionism of the Republicans, I think they’ve got a good shot at governing (and fixing the Republican mess) for a long time to come.
3 Responses to “Us vs. them”
I certainly hope you’re right! I saw this poll as well and it did give me some hope for the future of democrats and the country. Personally, I think if the congressional democrats will stop living in fear and truly go after the Bush administration in every way possible, they will serve themselves well.
Leo, what the hell do you think we’re TRYING to do? Bush holds the majority in three of the four branches of government: Judicial, Executive, and Cheney.
Kip, I’m about as true, blue a democrat as you will ever find, but frankly until recently I think that our congressional democrats have been a bit reticent to push as hard as they could against a lot of Bush’s policies. For example, they have been terrified to actually defund the war in Iraq for fear of the political consequences, and they have refused to even consider impeachment hearings, when it’s obvious that Bush and his cronies have broken about every law they could possibly break. They are starting to push more investigations and attempt some congressional oversight at this point, but you can bet your ass if it had been a democrat in the Whitehouse pulling this crap and a Republican congress, the republicans would have raised holy hell from the start and all we’d hear about and see is impeachement proceedings. Hell, they when after Clinton for lying about sex! The republicans maybe assholes, but they have tons of nerve and I believe the democrats could take a lesson in that department. I love the democratic party and its ideals, but when you have the vast majority of the nation screaming for oversight and change, and you’re still hesitant to make too big of a wave, then your party needs to rethink its political leadership and strategy.