Allow these Pew Research numbers to confirm your entrenched beliefs and support your unshakable faith in your own political wisdom.
Remember that enthusiasm gap from the 2010 election that was oh-so-deadly for Democrats? It looks like it hung around for the debt ceiling fight as well.
A telephone poll by the Pew Research Center for People and Press found that Republicans and Tea Party-affiliated respondents both paid more attention to the debt negotiations and were more likely to take action to influence the outcome.
Some 66% of the two groups followed news on the issue closely versus only 34% of those who had different views or did not offer a political opinion. Nor were they passive observers: some 66% of Republicans and Tea Partiers contacted an elected official during the standoff while only 5% of the rest did the same. This despite a direct appeal from President Obama to do exactly that.
As was the case in the midterm election, age was a crucial factor. Only 19% of 18-29 year-olds followed the story closely and 1% contacted an official versus 54% of those over 50 who followed the debate and 16% who contacted an official.
The numbers suggest that Democrats still have a ways to go before they fully reactivate the base voters that powered them into the White House in 2008.
You know my take: if the Dem base got one fifth of the red meat from the Dem leadership that the teabags get from the Republican leadership, we’d crush them again like we did in ’08