There is a flip side to the polling news that the DEM party is currently viewed as least favorable. The approval rating for either party was in the 30 to 40% range and the difference between the GOP and the DEM Congress approval was less than margin of error. So what does this mean??
It means Congress continues to be the least favorable, most caustic element of our government??
But there is more. Part of the answer lies in the idea that Republicans are more tribal (beholden to their party – period) and less concerned with factual reality (performance and positions of that party). In other words, most Republicans vote GOP no matter what!! That tends to explain Trump’s current 96% who voted for him would still vote for him; polling number. Around 42 to 45% of the conservative base are GOP period, tribal-type voters.
When one looks at history, the facts of performance speak a gridlock, get nothing done, my way or the highway, tune – for the GOP. The GOP party of NO was formed, officially, in 2008, before OB even became president but after that 2008 election. The party of NO refused across the board for his entire 8-years. They (minority at that time), refused to even talk about healthcare or any other issue, with OB or the DEM Congress, between 2009 and 2010, when had no voice of impacting resistance but were invited to participate and contribute – THEY SAID NO, completely, unequivocally!! The GOP used targeted gerrymandering starting in 2010 (a scheme called ‘Operation Redmap’), to purposefully alter local State voting districts, and therefore, to guarantee the GOP a majority status in the US House; thus has been from 2012 to current.. The GOP blocked OB at every single turn for his entire tenure and especially between 2015 and his retirement as President. Furthermore, the GOP party of NO enabled extreme partisanship that culminated with a no-consider or vote on OB SCOTUS pick for all of 2016. Then they performed an extreme partisan SCOTUS nuclear option to block DEM Congress from any participation at all as the GOP chose their SCOTUS pick instead of Obama’s.
The GOP has redefined the term partisan, gridlock, and obstructionist. Now they have become the poster-child, stereotype for “my [GOP] way or the highway”!!
Two weeks ago, GOP Speaker of the US House, Paul Ryan, publicly stated:
- “What I worry about, Norah (O’Donnell), is if we don’t do this, then he’ll just go work with Democrats to try to change Obamacare — and that’s hardly a conservative thing,” he said.
- “If this Republican Congress allows the perfect to become the enemy of the good, I worry we’ll push the President to working with Democrats. He’s been suggesting that much.”
- “We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do. You just had to be against it.”
In other words, it is still “my GOP way or the highway” and the GOP are very likely to use the nuclear option again and again, to exclude the DEM Congress, to repeal much of the current highly valued major legislation that has protected, empowered, and provided basic stability for and to Americans for 60-years. The GOP Congress intent is also to exclude we the liberal progressive majority, even as they exclude our elected representatives.
Extreme partisan politics by the GOP, backed by the slim minority conservative half of we the people, that is the scheme for the last 10-years, and right now!
So what do we do now?? The answer to stopping extreme actions by the current POTUS, his administration, and his GOP Congress – must occur in 2018. It is not about replacing the POTUS Trump, yet. It is about regaining a DEM majority in the US Senate. A DEM majority Senate, guarantees that either Trump and the US House come to the bargaining table, or gridlock ensues for the two years 2018 to 2020. Gridlock is and never has been desirable but is better than extreme party legislation.
Then in 2020, we the majority can push the reset button on Trump.
That is the key and why it is so very important for the Democratic party to get into gear, renew their face and ideas, lock in with those who are normally a voting part of the liberal-progressive base, show independents that “DEMs work for all” is relevant Democratics and is much preferred over “we work for the rich” Republicanomics.
We must put an end to this GOP scheme to take over the United States!!
Paul Ryan says no work with DEMs
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-obamacare-idUSKBN17105S
Paul Ryan – what happened to the AHCA
http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-trump-democrats-ahca-obamacare-2017-3
GOP Healthcare Failure
http://time.com/4713114/paul-ryan-ahca-health-care-failure-transcript
Paul Ryan News Conference 3-30-17; “I don’t want to work with Democrats”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahYORiII8gU
DEMs will work with GOP Congress – not the reverse
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/30/15111238/paul-ryan-democrats-health-care