According to a new Gallup poll the anti-incumbent wave that swept Democrats out in 2010 is looking to do the same to Republicans in 2012.
The latest USA Today/Gallup poll has found that only 28% of respondents believe that most of Congress deserves to be reelected in 2012. After the killing of Bin Laden congressional approval reached a high water mark of 24%, but since the Republican midterm victories in 2010, congressional approval has been around 20%. 69% of Independents, 64% of Republicans, and 56% of Democrats believe that current congressional incumbents do not deserve reelection.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that their own representative deserves another term, but a bad sign for House Republicans is that Independents are the voters who are most likely to throw an incumbent out. Independents tend not to vote in midterm elections, but do show up in droves during presidential years.
House Republicans are in big trouble here. John Boehner’s leadership has been a complete disaster. Paul Ryan’s plan to privatize Medicare has put a noose around the neck of every House Republican that voted for it. In March, a survey found that voters in the top 50 swing districts where Republicans won House seats in 2010 said that they would not vote to reelect the Republican incumbent.
The same wave of voter disgruntlement that undid Democrats in 2010 is poised to take out the GOP in 2012. The economy is still bad, but this time it is going to be Republican incumbents who will pay the price. House GOP incumbents have not helped their cause by ignoring the economy and jobs and pursing an agenda that varies between jihads against the social safety net and reviving the culture wars.
The deck is looking stacked against the GOP in 2012. House Republicans will be forced to run for reelection with Obama on the ballot, they will be outspent by Democrats, will have a weak nominee at the top of their ticket, and they will be facing an electorate that will be much bigger and different from the one that elected them in 2010.
Elections are often won and lost based on one vote or phrase, and when Republicans voted to privatize Medicare they probably lost the House of Representatives.
A Democratic wave is building for 2012, and there aren’t enough tea bags in the world to stop it.
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I like your optimism and I hope you are right. What this means, then, is we have a lot of work to do to get out the vote and support appropriate candidates.
Coloradocathy is correct! Having the president on the ticket is sure to help however it is still critical we must get our voters to the polls!
Before the Dems get too excited about this it would be best to look at the head to head races and the generic ballot which the GOP still leads. The Dems went into 2010 with their heads in the sand and it is entirely possible that it will happen again in 2012. I would put this article in the category of wishful thinking.
And remember we have to overcome a new handicap – the voter suppression laws being enacted in state after state. We will have to rev up registration activity, educate voters about needed ID, and watch the polls like hawks. This is an election ripe to be stolen.
Voter ID laws are going to curtail the whole process and citizens united will contribute to the mess. All that can be done is to GOTV and push back locally with the truth..Hear that some plans are already in the can with the medicare vote against the gop…but it needs to be local and state wide push back!
I would not put it past the repubs to do the voter fraud bit…either! WI is passing a punitive ID law today!
I do not believe that the tea bags will be anymore than a distraction. They have been let down by the Republicans, the Republicans are tied to the GOP Ryan plan which is going to carry them all the way to 2012 because all but four of them voted for it.
I just don’t understand how anyone in their right mind could vote Republican. Their own representatives voted to take things away from their parents and themselves. In this world of not knowing what is going to happen to you in the future don’t stand there and say it’s your own personal responsibility for your retirement because you don’t know what’s going to happen. You might spend the last 20 years of your working life unemployed. Even if you’re college-educated. Their own party has stabbed them in the back by not doing its best to get as many jobs as possible and giving the power to the corporations. I think the Republicans are screwed
If you’re not wealthy or racist, I would have to question anyone who would vote Republican at this stage of the game. We have to be diligent about getting out to vote and making sure everything is in order whether it is your identification or watching for voter fraud by the GOP. Our President is the true leader of the free world and he needs our support. We the voters have the real power and we must exercise it in 2012. And those who can exercise their right to a recall of the GOP should do so as soon as it’s feasible. The GOP is out to privatize Medicare which ultimately means removing the greatest social program for our country in the last 50 years while they continue to support the billion dollar profits
of the corporations and oil barons. We have to get them out of office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DEMOCRATS STAND UP
We had an election in 2010 that put a lot of Republicans into power and now a whole lot of the electorate would like to take back their vote, or maybe wish they had gone to vote.
There is talk that President Obama is not doing what he said he would when running for office. We tend to forget how long it took for Social Security to become a benefit for all of us. It did not happen for women or blacks right away, but in time it has become a great social benefit. The President has gotten a lot of things started but not completed. I believe he will get more done in his second term. Talks of not voting for him will only benefit the Republicans!
Why are Democrats not standing up to vote and get involved when everything we love and stand for is under attack? Maybe people think it could never happen to them? They could never lose their job, their benefits, their rights
Myself, I see the attack on workers, unions and women as an outrageous attack. The Democratic Party and everything we hold dear is under this attack! Our Schools, Teachers, Labor Unions, Workers Rights, Women’s Rights, Health Care, Environment, Consumer Rights all are under direct assault by an insurgent group of Republicans being supplied by the ultra radical wealthy and their corporations! They are attacking our supply lines by busting Unions, cutting off communications and by taking over the media airwaves. If we lose this war we will face years of lower wages, no work place safety regulations, more disastrous banking thefts of public money and the rapid death of the Middle Class!
You have been selected to serve your Nation! You are of legal age and as a Democrat are required to stand up and fight for Justice, Equality, and defense of the Middle Class! You should now report to your local Democratic Club or Office for service to your community to elect Democrats who will Champion Social Justice and defend our way of life from the Republican aggressors!
Every vote that you do not cast will be replaced by a Republican vote that we cannot afford. Are you happy with what the Republicans are doing around the country? Their own people are not happy. We must vote to remove them. Think about it, there is still time to reflect.
Hear hear. absolutely right
And I second that motion! You said everything right! I just beg every person to look ahead and see what new requirement such as photo ID that you will need for these new laws that Repubs dreamed up to keep you from voting,and GET what ever is required asap. In this state,and probably most,you can pop into the drivers Lic place,whether you drive or not,and get a photo ID for a small fee.Just do it and be there to vote these extreme Repubs OUT-and drive or go with several others,so you all vote.It is THE ONE LEGAL RIGHT THESE LOONS CANNOT TAKE AWAY FROM US! God Bless Our President and The United States of America!
I am in total agreement. We need to be planning sooner rather than later, by registering the unregistered and making sure photo ID’s are in order, to thwart those who would use any pretext to interfere with our right to vote. The Republicans prove every day that they could not care less about Americans, and those who still continue to look at Americans who are not the same religion, race, or political affiliation need to understand that we are all in this together. The complacency or apathy that led some of us to sit out the last election cycle is NOT an option when the question comes down to whether we will maintain a good standard of living or be reduced to 21st century serfdom with few if any chances of advancement.
“A Democratic wave is building for 2012…”
I wish I could believe that this is a good thing. I cannot. The Democrats regained the Congressional majority in 2006 and never once challenged Bush with a bill begging for a veto. The voters added the White House to even larger Congressional majorities and got nothing in return except the enhancement of the power of the minority and the rescue that party from a well-deserved obscurity.
The needs of the nation grow daily while the two-faced one-party duopoly play their power games. Those needs going unmet will cause the nation to disintegrate, and bring about a world crisis which would dwarf that of the 1930s. There is no FDR to exhaust himself successfully rallying the defense against unbridled corporatism (see: Mussolini). Without him, the future of the world is very bleak indeed.
It is, if we listen to “it’s all bullshit anyway” spiels like that.
You are easily pleased.
I doubt you are living out of your car like a sizable portion of the 13 million+ unemployed do. They would disagree with you. You never bring up being foreclosed, so I doubt the rain will dampen your day. Those so afflicted with this Obama fail would disagree with you. Millions of your fellow citizens still aren’t covered by medical care, which is becoming too expensive for some who are still covered. They would also disagree with you.
But don’t let me interrupt your performance of Pollyanna.
@Realist:yes there certinly are too many unemployed,and some homeless as well,and that is a shame and disgrace. HOWEVER,do NOT expect the Repubs are going to fix THAT,Because they are NOT. Pres.O.has done a lot of good things and will do more,but at least he is trying hard and cares-The Repubs could not care less about working folks and their families!
Look at the number of States now hitting the unemployed by cutting benefits. Republican States!
If FDR was so great how come it took WWII, almost ten years after he was first elected, to finally end the Depression? If FDR was so great, how come he compromised with Southern Segregationists to exclude agricultural and domestic workers from such New Deal Programs as SS, forty-hour work week, and minimum wage? If FDR was so great how come he sent innocent Japanese Americans to detention camps without trial? If FDR was so great how come he didn’t endorse anti-lynching bills, and how come he continued the policy of racial segregation in the military? Can you name one corporation that FDR put out of business? Please don’t get me wrong, FDR accomplished a great deal but was not as perfect as the “mythical FDR” that the holier than thou progressives invoke to bit up on President Obama.
I think any objective historian would argue that President Obama has accomplished a great deal, despite the vicious attacks from both the left and the right. His stimulus bill saved the country from going into a deep depression; he rescued the financial institutions because financial collapse would have been devastating to the entire economy; he passed the most sweeping financial reforms; he saved the auto industry which employs tens of thousands of people. The list progressive achievements by President Obama, and the Congress controlled by Democrats, is much longer than this. But for people who hate the president, or who have bought into the mantra that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, all these things don’t matter.
The Democrats must get out and vote. Throw the Republicans out of the House, Senate, Governorships, and State Legislatures. For those who don’t like President Obama, no matter how big a louse you might think he is, whoever the Republicans nominate will be a much bigger louse. Hold your nose if you have to, but vote to re-elect the President.
@Alan:You have it right too! I believe we will see Pres.Obama get a lot more done(and he has done a lot already),in a second term,because of no worries about re-election. The main thing is:Just vote,AND VOTE FOR DEMS ONLY,ALL THE WAY,from the smallest race,to the biggest,and maybe we will then get OUR country back!
There were districts in Illinois where registered voters like say 20,000 people were numbered on paper, but with a fact check, there were only 11,000 people living in those same districts. Voter fraud it seems. The DOJ refused to press charges or even launch an investigation. Maybe we should get UN observers like the ones the US forces on other nations. (:
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