What do you think?
A Suffolk University poll was released today that polled registered voters in Florida and asked a key question:
Do you think the Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jumpstart the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not reelected?
Now, I have been telling many of my friends and relatives (much to their collective chagrin, I’m sure) that the political and economic situation in the country – continued high unemployment, political stalemate in Congress, a disillusioned citizenry – means that, politically, the Republicans would have the most to gain electorally if the economy remains stagnant. As Bill Clinton’s pollster James Carville famously quipped in 1992, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Conventional political wisdom (and a fair amount of political science research) points to the notion that, electorally, the president generally bears the most responsibility for the state of the economy in voters’ eyes, rightfully deserved or not.
The corollary to this situation we face today is that, in a cynical political calculus, the Republicans can increase their chances of taking the White House in 2012 if they actively work against economic recovery. It sounds sinister to even suggest such a thing, doesn’t it? Well, what do you think the popular view of the situation is among Florida voters?
Do you think the Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jumpstart the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not reelected?
Yes 49
No 39
Undecided 12
49%…that’s something, ain’t it? Meanwhile, the partisan split on the polling is quite fascinating as well:
As expected, most registered Democrats (70 percent) agreed that Republicans are intentionally hindering the economy and hurting Obama, but independents (52 percent) and even some Republicans (24 percent) also agreed. (emphasis added)
Independents are often regarded as the lily-white souls who just can’t bear partisan conflict in politics, so the fact that 52% are siding with Obama on this question might reflect a majority view among that crucial demographic that the obstruction is coming from only one party. The 24% of Republicans who agree with the question could reflect a small group of Republican voters who are willing to acknowledge such scorched-earth tactics from the GOP, and they may even approve of such tactics in order to defeat President Obama. There is at least one big caveat to drawing too much out of these poll numbers; it’s not a national poll, it’s only Florida voters, so the applicability to other voter groups is negligible.
All that being said, however, this poll represents something new for this election cycle: acknowledgment that the political calculus for Republicans favors maintaining and/or increasing the economic misery for the American populace. Left-leaning writers and bloggers have been discussing this issue for months, but the fact that such a notion has penetrated into the rarefied air of a respected polling organization’s survey questions is something entirely new.
As Steve Benen notes, this single poll cries out for verification and/or contradiction, but that can only be done by further polling – polling that will have its results reported by the media, which will be forced to actually acknowledge the nature of the “sabotage” question asked, thus potentially raising the question in the minds of the viewing American public. Such a situation does not bode well for the GOP, as their strategy of getting away with massive legislative obstruction (as seen in Sen. Mitch McConnell’s blocking of a vote on the President’s infrastructure bill in the Senate today) relies upon the median voter not grasping the nuances of parliamentary procedure in Congress to directly link such obstruction to the GOP’s actions. Hiding in plain sight, as it were, with plausible deniability built-in.
For a long while, such actions appear to have worked, in a Pyrrhic sense, what with President Obama’s approval rating steadily dropping since mid-June. And yet, Congress has not been immune from blowback. Congress’ collective approval rating is now averaging 12.7%, according to RealClearPolitics. Congressional approval ratings are historically virtually always lower than those of the President, but with a CBS News/NY Times poll recently showing Congress to only have a 9% approval rating (the lowest ever recorded since the poll was first launched) Americans are increasingly angry at their elected representatives these days. The flipside of President Obama’s dropping poll numbers from the summer, as seen in the link above, are that his positives are now increasing again as he has honed his message on jobs and the economy. All the GOP has had to offer are a bunch of blockades of legislative procedure and empty “jobs proposals” full of the same sorts of ideas they’ve been promulgating since Reagan’s presidency.
Our politics is beyond broken these days, it is now actively heartless too. Our representatives seem not to have much of an inkling of what “representing” Americans means, given the widespread and massive suffering amongst and all around us. Witness Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Chair of the Armed Services Committee, writing to the New York Times to argue contra Paul Krugman that he is anything but a closet defense Keynesian:
Congress is charged by the Constitution with providing for the common defense by raising and supporting our armed forces. We don’t spend tax dollars to protect American jobs, but to protect American lives. As such, it is accurate to point out that cuts in defense spending will cripple a critical industry, result in huge job losses and erode our ability to provide for the common defense. (h/t Kevin Drum)
I don’t know, is it just me, or does it not seem that “protecting American jobs” seems like exactly what we ought to be spending our precious and vanishing tax dollars on in the interest of “common defense”? Have you seen our defense budget lately? Methinks the Pentagon is doing just fine, thank you. Why not use some Congressional intervention on behalf of the American people, rather than defense contractors, who have had bonanzas yearly since the “War on Terror” began?
Would that we had representatives working on our behalf…perhaps Congress ought to be the next venue for some Occupy-flavored civil disobedience?
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