On the Democratic Party's low approval rating

Its not news to most people that the Democrats are in trouble. They have had two straight landslide elections, bring with it the largest congressional majority any party has been given since the 1970s. The initial problem was that the base was not energized, compared to the Republican counterpart. Republicans were riled up by Fox News and claims of socialism creeping into the country. Democratic activists were disappointed over their losses on key components of the health reform debate. The passage of health-care legislation has greatly improved the mood among the base, though there is little evidence that independents have been swayed. I would attribute the failure of the Democrats to maintain there position to several factors.

The first of these is their message. The Republicans have had a far superior public relations strategy than the Democrats for a long time. Somehow an ad that says, "Obama is going to kill Grandma" is more frightening than, "Republicans are going to destroy the public safety net that provides for class mobility in our society." It is just funny how the Democratic strategists haven't thought about trying to promote their ideas and further discredit the Republican brand. There are so many things that could be used against them: contradicting statements on national security, ethics violations, corruption and pandering to business interests that could stir equal animosity towards the GOP as we saw during the last months of the Bush presidency. There is a reason that the Republican Party's favorability ratings hang somewhere between 15-20%. People know they don't have the middle class's interests at heart.

The second of these is the fact that the Democrats have let the Republicans define every issue that they have brought up. On the stimulus package, we saw Democrats touting tax cuts rather than focusing on spending that is proven to be much better for economic growth. On health-care, we saw the Democrats scramble to ensure that people could keep their existing coverage, even when that coverage is worse than it could be under real reform. Democrats have to shift the paradigm that America is a center-right country, or we will never be able to enact center-left policies.

Third, Democrats have never thought to blame Republicans for a breakdown in bipartisanship. The public wants to see more bipartisanship, and some polls have shown that a near majority think this is the fault of the Democrats. Its about time to call the GOP out on not negotiating in good faith. Included in this is the inability for the Democrats to control the economy. I think the administration would have the economic situation much more stable than it is now if we could have had more bipartisan support for real jobs and economic stimulus legislation. The economy is not the issue here, I think, it is the framing of the economic situation and who is to fault for it.

One of my next posts tomorrow will be what I think the democrats should do about the economy, so stay tuned.