GOP CONTINUES TO IGNORE THEIR OWN NEGATIVE REALITY

 

 

…The GOP logo, as seen today by most of the American public.

 

Having the worst approval in history doesn’t seem to faze the Republicans.

It’s time for us to understand that other than what President Obama can do with his Executive Orders, the current Republican party will not support any bills that would be agreeable to the president...Period!  In addition, the Republicans are saying that the president’s poll rating is low enough that they now expect to have a good chance to take control of the Senate.

Of course, the Republicans fail to mention that due to their lack of real governing, because of their do-nothing Congress of the past 3½ years, this year started with a congressional approval rating of 13%, and today it is down to 7% approval.  This is the lowest congressional approval rating “ever” in political history, ever since they started taking ratings back in the early 1950’s.  (No congress has ever had an approval percentage down to single digits! )

In fact, President Truman’s famous "do-nothing" congress of the late 1940’s would today be considered a very reasonable congress when compared to today’s Republican controlled House, and the GOP’s "Filibuster" powered Senate.

I guess the point is, don’t expect much of anything for helping our crumbling infrastructures of condemned bridges, falling apart public schools, pot-holed Interstate highways, or outdated major airports.  Do look to seeing more money being spent via the Citizen-United case and the Koch Bros. - Karl Rove political organizations for electing conservative politicians.  And these are the Politicians that would never agree to an increased minimum wage, or extending unemployment insurance, but they will expend many more efforts for repealing Obamacare.

Another area that the unrealistic Republicans have, is that even though the public’s approval rating of the Democrats is at a not so great 38% and the president’s approval is at a low  41%, the Republican party’s approval is at an historic low of 29%, and is slipping even lower. 

As to an early look at the potential 2016 presidential candidates, today, Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers are well above the Republican’s Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and even the Tea Party's - Ted Cruz.  Yes, I know that it’s way too early to talk seriously about 2016, but these campaigns keep starting earlier every year since back in the 2000 race.  And this peek at the poll numbers is just to confirm how lame the early GOP competition is looking today.

The primary loss of Eric Cantor as the GOP’s House Majority Leader was a big surprise and is another historical first.  No functioning Majority Leader of either party has ever lost in a primary challenge.  But in hind-site, the way Cantor was ignoring his constituency, it was an excellent example of why staying close to those that elected you is so important.  As President Obama once reminded Representative Cantor during a meeting at the White House, “Elections have consequences!.”  Apparently, to his demise, Cantor’s obvious arrogance toward this president prevented him from following what was some very good advice.

As for other interesting mid-term elections, the most bizarre one was the Mississippi’s Republican runoff between the Tea Party’s extreme, Chris McDaniel, and the US Senator, Thad Cochran, a six-term incumbent. 

McDaniel, who was being out spent about 20 to 1, was early on polling out front by 10 points.   But McDaniel's supporters were attacking Thad Cochran’s campaign for encouraging Democrats to participate in their open primary, which is totally legal. 

Now that Cochran has just barely kept his seat after an 11th hour push by the GOP, McDaniel’s is complaining that, “Cochran was so desperate to keep his seat that he kept it by going after liberal Democrats.”

So, a win for McDaniel, would definitely have further embolden the Tea Party.  But the defeat for McDaniel will now be blamed on the local Democrats and will totally infuriate the overall Tea Party movement.  (It has now been stated that Cochran probably won because his local Black vote was up 40% from the last primary election.  These voters usually vote Democratic, but Cochran went directly after the Black vote.)

Yes, the do-nothing GOP has been very frustrating to watch and their devastation to this nation is totally inexcusable. 

However, I must say, sometimes it is fun to watch them sticking their feet in their mouths, or watching them poke themselves in the eye with a stick.

Copyright G.Ater  2014