These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Voters Think Democrats More Likely To Have A Plan for the Future
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The first President Bush called it "the vision thing," and voters are more confident that the Democratic Party has it than do Republicans. They also see Democrats as more ideological than the GOP these days.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% of voters believe that the Democratic Party has a plan for where it wants to take the nation. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree, and 24% aren't sure.
By comparison, 35% think the GOP has a plan for where it wants to take the nation, but slightly more voters (39%) think the Republican Party doesn't have any such plan. Twenty-six percent (26%) are undecided.
Interestingly, 65% of Democratic voters say their party has a plan for the future, compared to 57% of Republicans who say the same of the GOP. Voters not affiliated with either party are more closely divided and tend to think neither party knows where it's going.
It helps, of course, that Democrats control both the White House and Congress and therefore are setting the national agenda. But right now it appears voters see the Republicans more as the party of "no" than as a party with ideas for the future.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of voters describe the Democratic Party's leadership as at least somewhat liberal. That includes 46% who say Democratic leaders are very liberal.
Seventy-two percent (73%) now believe President Obama is a political liberal.
As for the leaders of the Republican Party, 61% of voters describe them as at least somewhat conservative, but that finding includes only 24% who say they are very conservative.
Conservative is the most popular of five common political labels tested by Rasmussen Reports. Liberal is the least popular.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of GOP voters and 52% of unaffiliateds think the Democratic Party leadership is very liberal, but just 18% of Democrats agree.
Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Democrats and 21% of unaffiliated voters say the GOP leadership is very conservative, a view shared by only 10% of Republicans.
However, 75% of Republicans voters believe Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters throughout the nation over the past several years.
A Hotline/National Journal survey of GOP insiders in early January found that most are sour on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin . But a Rasmussen Reports survey in mid-November found that 59% of Republicans think Palin shares the values of most GOP voters throughout the nation.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of Democratic voters believe Democrats in Congress have done a good job representing their party's values over the past several years.
The Political Class sees the two parties a little differently. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the Political Class believes the Democratic Party has a plan for where it wants to take the nation, but Mainstream voters are almost evenly divided on the question.
A plurality (48%) of the Political Class says the Republican Party does not have a plan for the nation's future. Mainstream voters again have more mixed feelings: 40% think the GOP does have a plan for where it wants to guide the nation, but 31% don't.
The Political Class is much less likely than Mainstream voters to view the Democratic leadership as liberal and feels much more strongly that GOP leaders are conservative.
Still, 35% of all voters nationwide now think Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that an entirely new political party is needed to represent the American people.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of voters are at least somewhat angry at the government's current policies, up four points from late November and up nine points since September. Sixty percent (60%) of voters that neither Republican political leaders nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today.
As Scott Rasmussen notes in his new book, In Search of Self Governance, "If we ever found a Little League team behaving as poorly at the Republicans and Democrats or the congressmen or senators, we'd probably disband the team and go home. Heck, we might even disband the entire league and bulldoze the field."
This anger and unhappiness with the traditional parties has prompted the rise of the so-called Tea Party movement. Still, in a three-way congressional contest with a Tea Party candidate on the ballot , the Tea Party candidate now finishes third. In early December , the Tea Party candidate came in second, with the Republican last.
Yet most voters think the country would be better off if the majority of the current Congress wasn't reelected this November.