We’ve been discussing for more than a year now the GOP purge of candidates who aren’t judged sufficiently conservative. The leader of this wing of the Republican/Tea Party is ultra-conservative Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. DeMint famously said he’d rather have 30 senators like Marco Rubio than 60 senators like Arlen Specter:
I’ve been criticized by some of my Republican colleagues for saying I’d rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in the principles of freedom than 60 who don’t believe in anything.
Let me make myself even clearer: I’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters.
The Republican party is definitely becoming more like DeMint’s vision. Republicans who are not considered sufficiently conservative have been cast out: people like Charlie Crist in Florida and Dede Scozzafava in New York. The Tea Party has been successful in winning primaries but haven’t been successful yet in getting elected to higher office.
A new Pew Poll shows that Republicans are moving in the wrong direction for the country. People want compromise and a vote for health care reform is more likely to help a candidate rather than hurt them:
By contrast, about as many say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supported the recently passed health care law (39%) as less likely to favor such a candidate (35%); 22% say a candidate’s stance on health care legislation will make no difference.
The latest Pew Research/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, sponsored by SHRM, finds more positive than negative reactions to a candidate who is willing to make compromises. A substantial minority (42%) say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who will make compromises with people they disagree with; only about half as many (22%) say they would be less likely to back a candidate willing to compromise, while 29% say it will make no difference. But there is a wide partisan divide. More than twice as many Republicans (40%) as Democrats (19%) or independents (15%) say they would be less willing to favor a candidate willing to compromise.
People want action instead of talk. They see compromise as a way to get things done. It’s not a coincidence that the Democrats fortunes started rising once they started getting legislation passed. The people who want to do nothing but protect the status quo are a small and vocal minority, despite the amount of media coverage they get. Can I also add, we told you so on health care reform? Plus it’s going to get even more popular as some popular provisions start later in the year.
One area where the Tea Partiers really do have their finger on the pulse of Americans is on the bank bailouts. They are extremely unpopular:
About half (49%) say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supported the major government loans to banks; 14% say they are more likely to vote for a candidate that supported the legislation, while 32% say this will make no difference.
This is not surprising. Throwing money at the people who caused the financial crisis is not a popular idea. Especially when they use that money to save their own skins and then reward themselves richly for screwing up. Lingering anger at the bank bailouts is what has allowed the financial reform bill to pass, even if it is weaker than we’d like.