By Mish Shedlock of Mishtalk
Let’s count the ways...
Key Ideas
- Voters are now more likely to see the Republican Party as capable of governing, tackling big issues and keeping the country safe compared with the Democratic Party.
- By a 9-point margin, voters also see the Democratic Party as more ideologically extreme than the GOP.
- The trends against the Democratic Party are largely driven by worsening perceptions among its own voter base, which suggests that the party will have to rely more than ever on negative partisanship to keep control of the White House.
Those are not my thoughts. That’s what the latest Morning Consult poll shows.
In a significant reversal from the last presidential election year, U.S. voters are now more likely to see the Republican Party as capable of governing, keeping the country safe and tackling the big issues compared with the Democratic Party. These crossing trend lines provide a stark contrast from the lead-up to 2020, when Morning Consult surveys showed public opinion on the same questions was more static.
Both parties are also trending in different directions on two other characteristics that voters favored Democrats on in 2020. Voters have become less likely to see the GOP as stale, and more likely to say this descriptor fits the Democratic Party. And over that same time frame, voters increasingly say the GOP is responsible.
It’s not just that some voters have lost faith in the Democratic Party’s stewardship of the country — they also see the party as moving asymmetrically away from ideological moderation.
By an almost double-digit margin, voters are now more likely to say the Democratic Party is “too liberal” than they are to say the GOP is “too conservative.” That’s another big change from 2020, when roughly equivalent shares viewed both parties as too ideologically extreme.
Claim Everything is Working
Bidenomics In a Nutshell
— Mike "Mish" Shedlock (@MishGEA) September 28, 2023
1: Hand out free money via unwarranted subsidies to ease the pain of stupid regulations
2: Stoke massive inflation in the process
3: Brag that it is working.https://t.co/Fn5hxUlUln https://t.co/TsmuNV6HBQ
People elected Biden (barely) for two reasons. The first being he wasn’t Trump. The second being they expected him to be a moderate.
Then instead of bringing the nation together as promised, Biden morphed into the Progressive’s dream candidate stoking inflation with every decision.
Voters are upset. They want action on the border. They want better schools. They are fearful of inflation.
They don’t want to give up their gas stove. They don’t want to be forced into a high-priced EV when the infrastructure isn’t ready.
They did not expect Biden to be like Trump.
Biden is telling people how great the Bidenomics economy is, how he’s providing the most jobs, that he is best this and the best that, and the economy is humming, and he is bringing inflation down at the fastest pace in history.
Whatever. It seems so hollow because it is hollow. And voters see right through it.
Other than being much more polite in his delivery, Biden may as well have said, “I built a wall and Mexico paid for it”.
Somehow it seems harder to lie and get away with it when you are in power than when you aren’t.
Bidenomics In a Nutshell
- Hand out free money via unwarranted subsidies to ease the pain of stupid regulations
- Stoke massive inflation in the process
- Brag that it is working.
Here’s the deal. You can run against Trump once and win if your key message is “I’m not Trump.”
But can you do it twice with nothing more than inflation and a more polite delivery to back it up?