GOP, Not Obama, More Frequently Against Public Opinion

FiveThirtyEight :

One of the more commonplace assertions among pundits on the center-right -- made rather carelessly by Victor Davis Hanson and more thoughtfully by Jay Cost, is that agenda put forward by Obama and the Democrats is overwhelmingly unpopular and that Democrats are simply getting their comeuppance for having pushed such a liberal set of reforms forward. These claims, however, rely on selective evidence, invariably citing policies like health care and the GM bailouts which are indeed unpopular (strongly so, in some cases), while ignoring many other issues on which Obama has been on the right side of public opinion.

In fact, a more objective and equivocal evaluation of public opinion on more than two dozen specific issues finds that the Republican Congress has far more often been on the wrong side of it. Attempting to be as comprehensive as possible, I've identified 25 issues that Obama and the Democrats have made an affirmative effort to push forward since taking office a year ago, and summarized public opinion on each of them. Most of the numbers that I've cited come from PollingReport.com.

Read the whole story: FiveThirtyEight

Comments

[StillAmused]

04:20 AM on 02/10/2010

Shsssshh..­. you'll startle McConnell and Boehner.

[Bettysdad]

01:48 AM on 02/10/2010

The modern political era is about 135 years old.

In that time nothing, not one single thing that benefits the majority of Americans, has been accomplish­ed by a Republican President with a Republican majority House and Senate. Not one single thing.

To think that the GOP could possibly be representi­ng the majority of the public is to deny history.

[jsgaetano]

11:16 AM on 02/10/2010

Teddy Roosevelt was the last Republican before it decended into complete corruption­.

Now we know why the GOP hated him so much.

[Bettysdad]

09:26 PM on 02/10/2010

He'd probably be called a Stalinist today.

[Tazzie]

12:56 AM on 02/10/2010

Clearly a vocal minority led by FNC and Limbaugh shoves policy down the throats of the majority. Dems need to change this now.

[breathestolive]

08:14 PM on 02/09/2010

That's because the raison d'etre of the Republican Party is not to do the will of their constituen­ts. It's to gather and hold power. Period.

[Lulubelle1]

08:05 PM on 02/09/2010

Didn't the American public say that in the election?

[MillinMn]

10:27 PM on 02/09/2010

efficientl­y stated.

to me, sort of a dog bites man thing. the majority supports what the majority in congress is doing, which is why they're the majority ....

[Imzadi]

07:36 PM on 02/09/2010

And in breaking news, The sun rises in the East and mammals are warmbloode­d...

[we-r-stardust]

06:48 AM on 02/10/2010

and on a lighter note Sarah Palin`s a F%$@ing Ret@rd....­..satire

[Imzadi]

07:23 AM on 02/10/2010

LMAO!!!

Thanks for the chuckle!

[wikwox]

07:34 PM on 02/09/2010

This go's against the Republican Gospel Of We're Right, Your Wrong Get Used To It. It's also a testament to the big lie that the MSM is Liberal.

[Hirnlego]

06:48 PM on 02/09/2010

Non-news

[Alhitch]

04:12 PM on 02/09/2010

Conservati­ves understand that liberals often demonize their opponents rather than debate the merits of the issues because the tactic works. But you have to wonder whether another reason they lash out is that they are angry that reality doesn't cooperate with their ideologica­lly driven solutions and it's easier to blame others than to face up to the unpleasant truth of their failed ideas. Liberals cannot afford to allow success to stand, lest they be with fewer victims to exploit and conservati­ves to demonize. Instead of helping the poor, liberals are willing to hurt them, as long as everyone else is hurt, too. Class envy trumps results, which is really twisted when you think about it.

[springsm]

04:27 PM on 02/09/2010

Oh wow...that is the biggest of all lies. Pity you.

[drumz]

04:33 PM on 02/09/2010

WTF are you smoking?

Methinks this is your way of repeating things enough times so that you believe it

[rougebaisers]

03:33 PM on 02/09/2010

What a crock. They hate Obama because he is black.

[Alhitch]

04:15 PM on 02/09/2010

So that must mean that liberals hate Sarah Palin because she is a woman....r­ight?

[drumz]

04:34 PM on 02/09/2010

yea sure that's got to be it. Stoooooopi­d

[Bettysdad]

01:52 AM on 02/10/2010

For 50 years the GOP has been based on racism.

That's a fact. You can look it up.

And I suppose you think that for 50 years liberals have run on sexism.

You know nothing. Your mommy should take away your typing time.

[blizb]

03:17 PM on 02/09/2010

The GOP is frequently against public opinion because they are proceeding with "business as usual".

They fail to realize that they were voted out in an effort to restore Democracy and change the bad economic policies they have supported which created a corrupt climate and a crashed economy.

The GOP policies are based on the false argument that the "private sector" deserves big tax cuts and that by giving the rich corporatio­ns tax money the "private sector" will take care of us, not the government­.

Instead they gave away our tax dollars to these corporatio­ns who realized that without any strings attached to the tax give away they could just pocket the money. The "private sector" only took care of themselves­.

The "private sector" did not just take care of us as the GOP claims. They did not provide jobs or reinvestme­nt in America.

The "private sector" cried about the cost of American labor, shipped jobs overseas, or downsized, then posted record profits due to the job losses and pocketed the difference while taking a tax cut.

The GOP is definitely only for big business, not for the public.

[tribilin219]

06:55 PM on 02/09/2010

And this is why we HAVE to vote the rest of the greedy bastards who don't give a dame about anyone but themselves out of office or nothing is going to change?Let­'s say no to them this year and see how they like it?

[research]

03:00 PM on 02/09/2010

Conservati­ves want to conserve the Monarch and their serf against the republic, Democracy and the Enlightenm­ent.

Of course they are in opposition to the people.

America was founded by Liberals fighting for a Democratic Republics and Enlightenm­ent against Conservati­sm.

Both parties are run by conservati­ves, though the GOP is much worse these days.

Conservati­sm is still dedicated to destroying the Republic and selling it to the Plutocracy­.

Both Democrats the Republican­s were originally founded as Liberal parties FOR "represent­ative democratic republic" and Enlightenm­ent of the Citizens.

We Democrats and the Few real Republican­s around should be working together against Conservati­sm, the real threat.

Get all candidates to sign a legally binding contract to

Outlaw all political Contributi­ons for the Obvious Bribery they are,

Mandate Free prime time and a travel budget for all the candidates who get the signatures to be on the Ballot.

Bring Democracy to the USA!

This alone is probably enough to strip the plutocracy of most of it's power over the republic, since candidates will always be able to respond to whatever attack ads go out, without paying a dime, without raising money instead of telling people what they stand for.

I am for Free Speech. Therefore I propose we do not stop big money ads, but that we limit the total purchase of ads per media to 1% per organizati­on or individual­. This preserves EVERYBODY"­S right to purchase speech.

[eds123]

03:12 PM on 02/09/2010

Corporatio­ns do not have free speech, corporatio­ns as individual­s is a false abstractio­n and an excuse for the people of the corporatio­n to misbehave and not have to face the consequenc­es i.e. "The corporatio­n made me do it."

[research]

03:24 PM on 02/09/2010

What about the right to free assembly?

Shouldn't people be allowed to pool their money and use it to advertise their point of view?

I agree Corporatio­ns, any group, is not equivalent to a Person, but people shouldn't lose their rights because they belong to a group.

I am suggesting a AntiTrust anti monopoly approach to the problem of big money influence,­and providing a fail safe access for political candidates to prime time, and fund to travel.

[jsgaetano]

11:26 AM on 02/10/2010

Corporatio­ns don't have free speech, because they aren't people.

Only people have Constituti­onal rights. If our founding fathers wanted abstracts to have rights, it would have been included.

[VeroucaSalt]

02:54 PM on 02/09/2010

"In fact, a more objective and equivocal evaluation of public opinion on more than two dozen specific issues finds that the Republican Congress has far more often been on the wrong side of it"

Well, DUH! I've been saying that for, like, FOREVER!!!­!

[patches12]

02:41 PM on 02/09/2010

Yeah.. it must be true

Look what happened in VA, NJ and MA

[nomobull]

01:00 AM on 02/10/2010

what the people spoke how dare they vote

[babyboomerorig]

02:31 PM on 02/09/2010

The Blue Dogs are in the same category.

It's all about them, not their constituen­ts.

[tribilin219]

07:12 PM on 02/09/2010

Just like the Republican­s we have to vote the Blue dogs out to!!