Control of Congress aside, Americans view the GOP as the more divided party - By Philip Bump

[DonViejo]

By Philip Bump April 17 at 1:09 PM

Theoretically, the Republican Party has free rein to do what it wants in Washington. With a strong majority in the House, a majority in the Senate (plus a willingness to reconsider the filibuster) and control of the White House, this should be a moment in which the GOP can reshape the country.

When the party tried to follow through on a long-standing commitment to that end, though, it failed. The GOP’s effort to replace the Affordable Care Act was undercut by a split in the party, with hard-right conservatives opposing the replacement bill for one reason and moderate Republicans opposing it for another. That rift helped doom the measure, which has been tabled for nearly a month.

During the 2016 election, there was a lot of opining on the extent to which either party would be able to heal its internal rifts in the aftermath of the fiercely contested primaries. The gap between Democrats who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders and those who backed Hillary Clinton seemed, especially after Clinton’s election loss, as if it might be a more significant long-term problem than a Republican Party that stood behind Donald Trump to push him over the finish line in November. Now, though, Americans see the split in the GOP as much more significant than that on the left.

New polling from the Pew Research Center shows that Americans are about as likely to say that the Democratic Party is mostly united in its vision for the future and on the issues as they are to say that the party is mostly divided. Two-thirds, though, say the Republican Party is mostly divided.



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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/04/17/control-of-congress-aside-americans-view-the-gop-as-the-more-divided-party/?utm_term=.73c56e99631d&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

[Hortensis]

1. The DEMOCRATIC side demonstrates the success of our opponents,

both those overtly antagonistic and the pretend helpful ones, as well as the irresponsibility of a profit-seeking press.

The Democratic Party, like any party, has internal disagreements over which faction gets which bones, but we have never been more united. As the primary moved on into the general, 90% of Democratic voters were united behind our presidential candidate.

Sigh. Yes, a majority of voters did vote Democrat for president, a "moral" victory.

But liberals would do so much better if WE were the ones "outraged" that honest opponents were corrupt (when we have any), demanding innocent opponents be sued and jailed, and, above all, flooding the nation with the kind of sensationalist lies that are fun to pass on.

[OldSchoolLiberal]

2. This is great

Many voters don't like divided parties. So the GOP will not last in government for long.