Republicans Have An Even More Serious Problem Than Everyone Thought

Can the GOP make a come back... ever?

CNN has a serious new poll out-- one that confirms other post-election surveys. It indicates that a healthy majority of Americans are delighted to have the GOP out of government, replaced, at every level, by Democrats. No one fell for the McCain/Limbaugh scare tactic: one party rule will end democracy.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday, 59 percent of those questioned said Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches will be good for the country, compared with 38 percent saying such one-party control will be bad.

"That much good will from the public opens a window of opportunity for the Democrats," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "But the public expects results, and may not listen to excuses for very long if a Democratic Congress and a Democratic White House can't get their act together in time."

The poll also indicates that the public has a positive view of the Democratic Party, with 62 percent saying they have a favorable opinion and 31 percent an unfavorable opinion of the party. For the Republicans, a majority, 54 percent, said they have an unfavorable view of the GOP while 38 percent hold a positive view.

"The public has a positive view of the Democratic Party while the GOP 'brand' is hurting," Holland said. "Overall views of the Democratic Party have gone from 53 percent favorable in October to 62 percent favorable now; the GOP overall has seen a 5-point drop in its favorable rating."

Something tells me that fascistic rantings of extremists from the KKK wing of the GOP or threats to filibuster Obama's reforms by the Republican's #2 in the Senate, or the threats to impeach Obama-- before he's even sworn in-- by deranged GOP media shills, are not going to help the Republican favorability ratings.

In this morning's Washington Post Eugene Robinson argues, convincingly, that virtually the whole Republican Party is on a Bridge to Nowhere.

The essential problem is that changing course will require turning around and marching, if not sprinting, in the opposite direction. At least initially, this doesn't look like something enough Republicans are willing to do.

You think? I thought they were just kidding about all that "center right nation" hogwash they've been puking up since last Tuesday... kind of trying to make themselves feel a little better about losing elected officials who had been pegged as the GOP's future, like John Sununu (NH), Steve Pearce (NM), Tim Walberg (MI), Thelma Drake (VA), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Bill Sali (ID), Jon Porter (NV), et al. The argument that the GOP wasn't right-wing enough should be put to rest when you look at some of the losers from last week-- far right incumbents and, even more disastrously, far right would-be replacements for mainstream conservatives. New Mexico voters were no more willing to accept a kook like Darren White for Heather Wilson than Virginia voters were going to elect James Gillmore to replace John Warner.

FL-08 (Orlando and well-healed suburbs like Winter Park and Windermere gave Bush a 10 point margin in 2004 and re-elected conservative Congressman Ric Keller with a 7 point margin in 2006. This year not only did they fail to re-elect Keller (6 point spread), they elected one of the most progressive candidates running for office anywhere, Alan Grayson, someone who talked openly about impeaching Bush, jailing war profiteers and making the economic system work for average American working families, not just multimillionaires. Yes... in the middle of Florida!

Sure, plenty of far right-wing Republicans were defeated by worthless conservative Democrats, from Michael McMahon (NY) and admitted Blue Dog Frank Kratovil (MD) to Alabama anti-choice nuts like Bobby Bright and Parker Griffith. But the real future of the Democratic Party-- and of the country-- is in the hands of forward-thinking, innovative progressives like Jeff Merkley (OR), Tom Udall (NM), Jim Himes (CT), Mark Schauer (MI), Gary Peters (MI), Martin Heinrich (NM), Larry Kissell (NC), and Tom Perriello (VA).

Robinson tackled the false postulation of "center right nation." He says that John McCain, who lost states Democrats haven't had a shot at in many years, was essentially a center right politician who was forced further and further right by the GOP's deranged and imbecilic base.

To win the Republican nomination, he had to swerve so far to the right that there was no way he could make his way back within shouting distance of the center. Not that he tried very hard: By the end of the campaign, he was suggesting that progressive taxation-- a concept that most Americans accept, having been convinced of its wisdom by Republican icon Teddy Roosevelt-- represents some sort of creeping socialism.

My guess, in any event, is that this country oscillates pretty freely in the range between center-right and center-left, and that it's clearly taking a leftward swing. My guess is that in stimulating the economy, re-regulating the financial system, making "green" technology a reality and ending the war in Iraq, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Obama will feel more public pressure to speed up than slow down.

Big-spending, pork-loving Republicans in Congress who suddenly recall that they're actually budget hawks-- at a time when massive spending may be needed to keep a sharp recession from turning into an outright depression-- will find themselves steamrollered by history, I'm afraid.

And then there's the question of trying to knit together the Republican Party's warring factions. Many "movement" conservatives still believe they have found a champion in Sarah Palin. A lot of pragmatists believe Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal represents the future of the party. Jeb Bush may be the party's most skillful and well-rounded politician, but there's the problem of that unfortunate last name.

Most Republicans don't want Jeb Bush or Bobby Jindal or Huckabee or the Mormon or Ron Paul as their 2012 standard bearer. They want Sarah Palin and that, in short, is what's wrong with the Republican Party and why it's going to get a lot worse for them before it gets better. By the end of the campaign 60% of voters felt she was unqualified for the vice-presidency. The majority of newspapers that backed Bush in 2004 and switched to Obama in 2008 mentioned McCain's lack of judgment in picking Palin as a major reason for endorsing Obama. And yet... most Republicans want her to run in 2012. Most Democrats do too-- though for vastly different reasons.

In the national Election Day exit poll, fully 60% of voters said they did not consider her qualified to serve as president if necessary, while only 38% thought she would be ready to step in. Those figures were daunting enough, but new calculations from the exit poll provided by the NBC News political unit show that outside of the Republican base skepticism about Palin’s credentials reached even more imposing heights. While 74% of Republicans thought Palin was qualified, just 35% of independents and 9% of Democrats agreed... [W]hile quite popular among the party base, she faces deep resistance from voters outside of it, including many of the groups (independents, college graduates, residents of the coasts) who turned most sharply away from the GOP in last week’s rout.

Palin, Michael Reagan, Paul Broun, Ted Stevens, that plumber guy, Michele Bachmann, Jon Kyl... that's what's left of the Republican Party-- and they're damn proud of it.