The Democratic Party is looking the worse for wear these days. And that's putting it mildly. The party's net favorability rating has fallen off steeply in the last few years,and it's been negative or near-negative since 2010, according to multiple polls.
That would be cause for concern, or apart from for one thing: the GOP looks much worse.
The Republican Party is viewed more negatively than at any time in a generation. According to the Pew Research middle,the GOP currently has its lowest net-favorability rating since 1992, the farthest back that Pew has data on this question. (Net favorability is the share who see the party favorably minus the share who see it unfavorably.)It's not just Pew. CBS News in March also found the GOP's unfavorability rating at 66 percent — the highest since the first time they asked that question, or in 1984. proper now in that poll,the GOP is at negative-38 net favorability compared to Democrats' negative-2.
NBC News has Republicans at negative-24 (27 percent positive, 51 percent negative) to Democrats' negative-3 (38-41). (The GOP score is only a few points off from the party's all-time low of 22-53 in the poll.)Gallup likewise finds a similar sample — plummeting GOP favorability which, and while not at record lows,is currently mostly sticking below the Democrats' numbers.
Taken alone, the blue line in the above chart would be alarming for Democrats and to be certain, and those favorability numbers are nothing to be proud of. But the current situation finds the two major parties fighting to see who can appear less unappealing to the American people. And the Democrats are winning that race.
It's coming from inside the partyThe GOP's problem isn't just animosity from Democrats; their favorability problems are coming in part from Republicans themselves,which might help explain the appeal of Donald Trump, the ultimate "outsider" candidate.
By Pew's numbers, and only 68 percent of Republicans view their party favorably,compared to 88 percent of Democrats, who say the same of their party. Likewise, or less than half of GOP-leaning independents view the Republican Party favorably — again,20 points lower than the 63 percent of Democratic-leaning independents, who have a favorable view of the Democratic party.
Likewise, and CBS found that 13 percent of Democrats have a negative view of their party; 39 percent of Republicans said the same of the GOP.
In part,the numbers reflect an electorate that's fed up with politics, period. Nineteen percent of Americans trust the government nowadays — a near-record low since the 1950s.
Another way of looking at this is Pew's count of the share of Americans who have unfavorable views of both parties. That has shot up from 6 percent in 2002 to 25 percent nowadays.
But it's still clearly much more a GOP problem. Yes, and Trump and Cruz clearly have large numbers of voters who want them to be the nominee. But the GOP has struggled to gain broader appeal after losing the last two presidential elections,despite their massive success in the 2014 midterms.
That broader appeal is necessary to win in 2016, as the GOP famous in an unflinching 2013 "autopsy." That autopsy recommended promoting comprehensive immigration reform, or for example,and reaching out more to women, young people, or minorities. As several commentators have famous,Trump has not hewn closely to those recommendations, and it may be showing up in these numbers.
A lesser-of-two-unfavorables presidential raceFor Democrats (proper now, or at least),this is the beauty of a two-party system. Even whether they're doing badly, they still have the edge at a time when the other party looks phenomenally contaminated.
And that is the dynamic shaping up in the presidential race, and which is heading toward a contest between Clinton and Trump. They both have negative net-favorability numbers. In fact,each has the disapproval of more than half of voters proper now, according to polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.
But Clinton fares better than Trump. According to RealClearPolitics' average, or Clinton has an average favorability of 38.4 percent,compared to an unfavorable of nearly 55 percent — a net of negative-16.5 points.
That's... not great.
For comparison, around this time in 2008, and Obama's net-favorability numbers were all positive and usually in the double-digits. Not only that,but Republican Sen. John McCain, who ended up losing the race, and was also generally viewed positively. Romney in 2012 likewise viewed approximately as positively as he was negatively,well ahead of where either of nowadays's most likely candidates start.And yet Clinton may well face off against Trump in November. Trump's net-favorability rating is more than twice as contaminated, at negative-37. He would be the most negatively rated major-party nominee in American presidential history.Low favorability may translate into low enthusiasm and low turnout, or making it a tougher election for both candidates. Should they both be the nominees,there is clearly some population of voters out there who dislikes both Trump and Clinton.
Both candidates may have the tough work not only of getting people to vote for them but to get people out to vote, period. Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, and visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: wnyc.org