Looks like, thanks to Barack Hussein Obama, the Democrat "brand" is a big, steaming pile:
The midterm election wave that swept Republicans to a majority in both the Senate and House also shifted Americans' political allegiance toward the GOP, a new poll shows.
According to a Gallup survey, 43% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned toward the Democrat Party before the November 4th elections, while 39% identified as or leaned Republican.
But a day after the election, Republicans had wedged open a slight advantage, 42% to 41%, representing a net shift of five percentage points in the partisanship gap, Gallup reports.
"Americans are also now more likely to align themselves politically with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party," the poll analysis noted.
"The 2014 midterms were an unqualified success for the Republican Party, and that success has caused Americans to view the Republican Party more favorably than the Democratic Party, as well as to say congressional Republicans should have more influence than President Barack Obama over the direction the nation takes in the next year."
If only that were possible. <sigh>
I've always said that when bloggers post about polls (other than at election time), it's prima facie evidence of a slow news day. Which is why I so rarely, if ever, post about polls other than, you know, at election time. This one is no different. Gallup is correct that this pro-GOP shift is almost certainly a "bandwagon" effect of the 2014 midterms, and it will ebb and flow depending upon events and what both parties do to mold, and how they react, to ongoing events. We all know, due in no small part to the hair-trigger fratricidal tendencies of the Republican base, that the GOP will always have far less margin for error, and be held to a vastly tighter schedule, than the Democrats ever will. And, consequently, the Republican "brand" will also always be far less stable and much more fragile than that of their Donk enemies.
But both Tea Partiers and the "Establishment" need to understand two respective truths:
(1) The new Republican majorities aren't going to be any more successful advancing a conservative agenda into law than the GOP House has been the preceding four years because of fanatical Democrat obstructionism, both via Senate filibusters and presidential vetoes. Just because "we won" doesn't mean the other side doesn't still have the means to fight back and resist, at least defensively. If TPers are expecting the "red" electoral tide to continue on in policy terms and sweep away Red Barry, they're in for a rude awakening that will not be the fault of "GOP gutlessness".
However....
(2) Fanatical Democrat obstructionism presents a cornucopia of political opportunities for Republicans to show themselves taking policy action the electorate wants and for which they enthusiastically voted - the sort of pro-energy and pro-economic growth/jobs measures House Pachyderms have been passing for years only to have them die of neglect on Harry (G)Reid's desk. GOP leadership should not give a frog's fat leg about "governing" by compromising with the White House, but rather attempting to govern as We, The People elected them to govern, thus defining the 2016 battlefield and laying the foundation for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's capture of the presidency.
Politics is process, a cycle like any other. And a party and movement doesn't get where it wants and needs to go all in one fell swoop - especially as far down as the Right has been during the Age of The One. And that means, yes, "playing the political game," my Tea Party friends - because that is how politics, and government, work.
To win, the Right needs grassroots resolve and "Establishment" savvy. And for both to realize, accept, and never forget that they need each other if the Old American Republic is ever to be reborn.
Otherwise, we can kiss our short-lived "brand ascension" goodbye, and what's left of the Constitution right along with it.
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