Why the Shutdown Looks So Bad for the GOP

[madokie]

Not only are they taking the blame, but the Republican party’s divisions, fissures, and personal animosities are taking center stage.

During the Great Polling Disconnect of 2012, the Obama campaign, the press, and a number of pollsters thought that Barack Obama would win his second presidential election. Republicans and the Romney campaign were equally convinced the polls were flawed: The electorate would behave differently on Election Day.

There was a clear loser in that experiment. We're facing a similar test now with the government shutdown. Public opinion polls show overwhelming opposition to the GOP strategy. Republican Sen. John McCain tweeted a Quinnipiac poll Tuesday morning that shows 72 percent of Americans oppose Congress “shutting down major activities of the federal government” as a way to stop the Affordable Care Act from going into effect.

For the conservatives pushing the showdown over the president's health care plan, those numbers are either wrong or changeable. We're about to find out which side is right.

In the first hours of the shutdown, the terrain looks very bad for Republicans. It's amazing how consistent the polls have been about linking a confrontation over the Affordable Care Act to funding of the government. While polls show the public disapproves of the law, it has consistently told pollsters it is not in favor of tying government operations to defunding the health care plan. In addition to the Quinnipiac poll, the polls from CBS, CNN, CNBC, National Journal, and Kaiser show this. As GOP Sen. Jeff Flake said, Republicans have found the one gambit less popular than Obamacare.

Link: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/government_shutdown_is_bad_for_republicans_the_gop_s_divisions_and_fissures.html

[vi5]

1. Problem is twofold

1) the average voter is very low information and in this social media age susceptible to sound bites and memes.

2) the gop is better at simple messaging and sound bites.


I'm aleady seeing and hearing a lot of non-political, non-partisan folks falling for the idea that this is a "both sides" type of situation.

[Cryptoad]

3. Hell

there are many people who have no idea that the gubermint is even shut down!

But there is no choice in what must be done. Caving to the GOP would in effect be flushing our Constitution down the toilet!

[tclambert]

6. The government shut down? I got mail yesterday.

You know, paper in an envelope, Netflix, that sort of thing. And the traffic lights still work. That's about all the government most people see on a daily basis.

[beerandjesus]

18. The USPS has its own funding stream

It's all paid for out of revenues from stamps and other services. And they even turn a profit, which is why Issa and his crew had to saddle them with the 75-year pension pre-funding thing to hurt them financially and create an opening for privatization.

If I'm not mistaken, it was Nixon who, in the first wave of "it should be run more like a business" mania, caused the USPS to be set up this way; prior to that, it was publicly financed. So in one of life's little ironies, people like you and me, who appreciate getting mail (I'm a record collector, so I mail and receive packages several times a week) have Nixon to thank for the fact that we don't have to worry about that right now!

[seabeyond]

19. my son wanted to know why he went to school yesterday. to be educated, i said. shut down, he tells

me

i hadnt put it together. what kind of govt shut down is this when the kids still have to go to school.

[vi5]

9. Completely agree.

The type of idiotic low information mentality I'm talking about is going to happen no matter what is done so that's why Dems shouldn't have caved even half the times they did. I'm glad they finally got the message.

[Cryptoad]

27. I guess we keep saying...

" Nobody is that stupid!"

Guess they showed us.
and I think we have finally learned our lesson
I hope so!

[Enthusiast]

5. Well, yes and no.

It is little wonder voters are "low information". Most of the information voters receive is false and specifically designed to mislead.

The media gives Republican/conservative words more weight.

Watch the Sunday Morning political shows to validate my assertion.

There is an entire network dedicated to bolstering the GOP talking points.

And the entire non-Fox media wallows in this false equivalency.

Hell, vi5, there has never been a propaganda effort this size in our entire history.

The "both sides" share a blame is just the latest right wing meme. They have a new false meme every fucking day.

[watoos]

7. Exactly

It's easier for Republicans to push their bs narrative because they control the M$M. Even MSNBC only puts a liberal slant to the narrative. Donahue got fired from NBC for talking anti war. Dylan Ratigan got fired from msnbc for talking crony capitalism. Olbermann and Uyngur also got canned from straying from the narrative. It's much harder for Dems to get the truth out when they have to fight the press as well. This is an important fact missed by many, even on DU.

[Dustlawyer]

22. True Dat!

[vi5]

10. Yes, definitely.

In fact I've always said, the fact that this propaganda machine is as large and as vast and as entrenched in our mainstream media as it is, and Dems STILL win elections is amazing. If the media and messaging playing field were actually even close to level the GOP wouldn't even exist any more. At this point it's all that's keeping them afloat. But it is strong enough that it will continue to keep them afloat despite reports of the GOP's demise.

[Enthusiast]

14. You are exactly correct.

If the media was at all fair, the entire right wing noise machine and the GOP would have vanished before our eyes.

[Volaris]

13. That will change real quick when people start asking questions like

"Who EXACTLY is responsible for all this trash not getting picked up in DC?"
What's the record? 21 days? Lets see if the GOP has the spine to try and set a new record. My money's on Yeah, not really.

[Cha]

2. THanks madokie

[Enthusiast]

4. The GOP doesn't look bad enough to suit me.

Until the public recognizes the harm they have done I am far from satisfied. Much of the media still insists that Obama and the Democrats have an equal share of blame. When are we going to start calling them the Fascists they are?

[yuiyoshida]

8. If our US Government survives this... Lets hope there are

FEWER Republicans voted in the next Election. We should totally push them all out of office. (Nice dream, but it probably will not happen, unless they are replaced by Independents.)

[Trekologer]

11. The GOP believes their own lies

They float a lie out there (such as that Americans overwhelmingly want the Affordable Care Act repealed), repeat it constantly in their echo chambers, forget that it was a lie, and make their decisions based on that lie. I think that the Romney campaign further compounded this by being filled with "yes" men that were telling Romney what he wanted to hear.

[daybranch]

12. sort of like the vote to get rid of Walker in Wisconsin

Republicans cling to the notion that Obama care is unliked by a a plurality of voters butwant to assume that means their plan to eliminate Obama care by defunding it will be supported. Walker was very unpopular but people did not see that he should be removed and the pollsters did not ask. So much of our news is just unconnected bits of information linked by assumptions to indicate whatever one wants to sell.

[B Calm]

15. Republicans keep thinking the polls are flawed. I remember the look of disbelief on

my republican co workers faces when they found out Obama was reelected, it cracked me up. One guy said, well I guess your happy today. I said the MAJORITY of America was happy.

[madokie]

16. I would add that the majority of us are still Happy

Flaws and all I still like my President very much, thank you.
I think most of the flaws I mention is me

[Hubert Flottz]

17. The republicans I know only watch FOX

And talking to them is just like watching FOX on TV. I can't stand to talk to them anymore. I'm turning into a recluse and I feel better about the world. I no longer have any republican "friends" or relatives and I'm mentally far better off, IMHO. False friends all along for the most part anyway. I'm tired of feeling like a rattlesnake backed into a corner, so I have decided to withdraw from republican stupidity as much as possible.

I hope the republican party gets so small I could flush them down my crapper.

[madokie]

21. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one

I too have moved away from most of all my old time republicon friends. Just can't stand them anymore. I like me much better this way

[Ikonoklast]

20. When you spend all your time only listening to others in the same bubble, you get nasty surprises

in life.

Remember the inevitability of a President Romney?

Every right-wing turd I knew was crowing how bad Mr. Obama was going to lose, because they refused to listen to what the rest of the country was saying and only listened to the idiots on Fox.

Their astonishment at losing was hilarious to behold, it created a big chink in Fox's armor, even the gullible dumbasses realized they were played for fools by Fox et al.

[Nay]

26. Yes, but paradoxically, these nasty surprises do not seem to lead

to the education of these idiots. They don't learn from experience. They double down on their idiocy, and half the time it works for them because their idiotic followers don't learn from experience, either.

IMHO, the only thing that will truly teach them is the squalor of finding themselves and their families living under a bridge in a cardboard box. And I'm not even sure that would teach them.

[C_U_L8R]

23. Drunks and Demagogues

Never a good combo.

[brush]

24. Seems like the ACA is not that unpopular . . .

judging from the swarms of people trying to get on the ACA site.

The repugs calculated WRONG again. Who are they using, Romney's people?

[madokie]

25. Just being led by a drunk

and the tea party faction that should be drunk and passed out

[JoeyT]

28. And they're absolutely convinced they're looking good.

I guess they saw the tea baggers chugging all that Kool Aid and thought it looked tasty. Now they've started drinking what they mix and they're so far gone they can't recognize reality any more.