Crossposted from Flopping Aces
Not….Princeton, NJ — Amidst a swirl of public dissatisfaction about the Iraq war, the economy, government corruption, and with President Bush more generally, Americans went to the polls in November 2006 and voted enough Republicans out of office to give the Democrats majority control of Congress. A year later, Americans are as negative about the job Congress is doing as they were leading up to the 2006 midterm elections. And according to recent Gallup polling, Americans are distinctly negative about the Democrats’ handling of several front-burner policy issues.
The latest Gallup Panel survey, conducted Oct. 25-28, 2007, asked Americans to say whether they are “pleased,” “neutral,” “disappointed,” or “angry” about the way the Democrats in Congress have been dealing with seven major issues confronting the nation.
Overall, relatively few Americans are pleased with the Democrats’ performance on any of them. This ranges from 7% for the federal budget deficit to 17% for terrorism. Between 12% and 26% say they are angry about the issues. However, most Americans fall in between, with the plurality generally saying they are disappointed with congressional Democrats’ performance on each.
When you look at the numbers the first thing that jumps out at you is the fact that Gallop actually combined the “pleased” and “neutral” groups together to get the positive score, which helps the Democrats quite a bit. I mean come on, since when is “neutral” a positive? I’m going to go right out and vote for the guy who gives me that neutral feeling….geez. But even with that help the numbers are dismal for the Democrats.
Looking at the data you see that the main category of voters that helped the Democrats take Congress in 2006, the Independents, are more pissed off then anybody. 57 percent of Democrats are upset with Congress in their handling of Iraq while 72 percent of Independents are. 66 percent of them are upset with their handling of immigration, 60 percent on health care, 65 on the deficit.
Mark Tapscott can see opportunity here but also warns everyone on the wider implications of the dissatisfaction:
The Socialist party….ugh, I mean the Democrat party, will continue to promise more and more entitlements, and do everything within their power to ensure their voters get those freebies by raising taxes, which, as this poll is starting to prove, will be their downfall. That, and the fact that they spend all their time on idiotic stuff like this:Those figures indicate a wholesale failure on the part of the Democratic majority in Congress to deliver on its two fundamental promises in the 2006 election campaign, to clean up Republican corruption in Washington and to change U.S. policy on Iraq.
But before Republicans get too happy about seeing the Democrats abysmal failure, I suggest the root of these numbers isn’t simply a dissatisfaction with policy failures, but rather an indication of a deeper disappointment borne of the widespread failure of Big Government.
We have created a federal Leviathan that promises to deliver something for everybody, with its regulations and taxation directing virtually every corner of daily life. There is no way any government can do that, so failures are inevitable. But over a period of time, as the failures in particular arenas multiply, there comes a point when the many specific failures merge into one general mood of dissatisfaction.
Within the next decade, as the seriousness of the entitlement crisis becomes more evident, it is likely that the general dissatisfaction with government that promises everything and delivers nothing but higher taxes, more waste and policy paralysis is going to grow more intense and deeper rooted.
House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008.
The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate — let alone overcome a presidential veto — Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren’t giving up.
“The fact is, we can no longer sustain the military deployment in Iraq,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Staying there in the manner that we are there is no longer an option.”
Legislation that has no chance on being signed into law, and they know it. But they keep doing it. I mean 15 Democrats crossed the aisle to vote no on this latest one. This is prove positive that the Democrat leadership is only interested in making it LOOK like they are appeasing their masters (MoveOn and the sort) to keep them off their backs. The result…..nothing gets done.
And their numbers go down down down.Other’s Blogging:
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