How bad a hit has the Republican brand in recent years as the talk radio political culture and the new media pundits that cheer it on and the Tea Party have steadily replaced the previous image of the Republican Party? It has been a huge hit — and The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent documents it. Here’s part of his post:
Republicans successfully converted the 2010 elections into a referendum on President Obama, the economy, and liberal overreach. As a result, they won big. Now Democrats are hoping to turn the 2014 elections into a referendum on the GOP brand and the destructive excesses of Tea Party governance.
The GOP just might help Democrats succeed.
Polling released this week by the Washington Post and ABC News found the GOP’s unfavorability ratings among Americans at an all-time high of 63 percent.
But a closer look at the numbers reveals that this has been accompanied by a massive collapse in 2013 of the GOP brand among core constituencies important in midterm elections: Independents, women, and seniors.
I need to add that I get emails every week from Tea Party Republicans furious about posts or columns criticizing the Tea Party and the existing, emerging Republican brand. They have responded with such arguments to change someone’s mind as “you’re nothing but a Marxist…if you’re a real moderate why don’t you demand to find out the truth about Obama’s birth certificate,” and my favorite “your liberal Jewish mother should have taught you better.” These are manifestations of a fact: many in today’s conservative movement have no desire to change minds, only to rage at and discredit those with whom they disagree — which isolates them and their party even more. More Sargent:
The crack Post polling team has produced a new chart demonstrating that in the last year — since just before the 2012 election – there’s been a truly astonishing spike in the GOP’s unfavorable ratings among these core groups.
The chart won’t reproduce here on TMV but here’s more:
The interactive chart (run the cursor on the bars for numbers) shows the GOP’s unfavorable ratings have jumped 19 points among seniors, to 65 percent; 17 points among independents, to 67 percent; and 10 points among women, to 63 percent. Those are all key constituencies in midterm elections.
Observers believe that over the long term, the GOP will have to do a better job winning over college educated whites, who are an increasingly important constituency, along with young voters and minorities, in the Democratic coalition of the future. (Ron Brownstein has dubbed these groups the “coalition of the ascendant,” arguing they are increasingly important in statewide races, not just national ones.)
Among white collar whites, the GOP’s unfavorability rating has shot up by a startling 21 points, to 70 percent. Among college educated women – who may be more critical to the Dem coalition than college educated men – the spike in GOP unfavorability has been somewhat more dramatic than among women overall, jumping 15 points, to 74 percent. If this trend continues, it could fuel future Dem gains among women.
The bottom line?
The Republican’s problem now is that it is a party talking mostly to itself.
And many have no real interest in opening up a respectful, thoughtful dialogue that could change minds — only indulge in predictable polemics that are helping a large number of Americans make their minds up about today’s GOP.
And Rush Limbaugh and Fox News don’t have a clue about what those Americans really think of today’s Republican Party. Republicans can’t get out of the ideological echo chamber which is turning into a political gas chamber.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.