…. is that at least (more) Democrats seem to hold officials of their own party up to some kind of standard, and are not willing to approve of their job based only on party.

For the sake of argument (and easy number crunching), let's say that people polled are split evenly 50-50 as Democrat & Republican voters. Furthermore, let's say that each pollee will disapprove of people of the opposite party (because, you know, we're all shallow partisan hacks).

So what that means is that a 30% approval for Bush really means 60% of Republicans still approve of him, but only 32% of Democrats still approve of the Democratic Congress.

Realistically, virtually no one of either party should be happy with what our leaders are doing - they all appear to be a bunch of greedy, partisan, incompetent crooks. It seems to me, though, that Democrats either 1) hold their leaders to a higher standard than Republicans, or 2) are not willing to have the wool pulled over their eyes by slick talking politicians who tell them everything is OK (or bumbling idoits telling them that, in the case of the President).

8/14/2007 11:04:58 AM

so you're a democrat

cause i mean i think both parties only like to hold the other party accountable

8/14/2007 11:09:57 AM

my point being, I think people should hold all parties accountable.
but according to the polls, with (roughly) 50-60% of Republicans still approving of Bush after 7 years, I just don't see what he could possibly to do lose their support.

On the other hand, it has only taken 7 months for about 70% of Democrats to realize that the Democratic Congress sucks donkey balls too, and we're not happy with where they're going.

8/14/2007 11:19:36 AM

^^ What exactly are they doing all that wrong right now?

Since the democrats were elected, to the best of my knowledge, no more "offense against humanity" bills have been passed, except for the minimum wage thing.

8/14/2007 11:23:32 AM

thats correct, no more bills have been passed.....

8/14/2007 12:23:56 PM

I wonder how many people in these polls really even know that the democrats are in charge. I mean really, there are some ignorant folks out there and I'm sure they're just like "yeah, jobs suck, Iraq sucks, they all suck" without having any real knowledge of this situation.

8/14/2007 12:52:26 PM

Yeah........and seeing how the democrats have been in charge for the last 13............nvm

8/14/2007 1:07:39 PM

^yeah they're still not really in charge...i mean they have majority in the house and senate but they're not in charge of congress....

8/14/2007 2:49:54 PM

they definitely have a majority of the house. the senate, not so much.

8/14/2007 4:07:17 PM

the republicans have a majority in the senate? cause unless its 50/50 its gotta be one or the other doesnt it?

8/14/2007 4:09:10 PM

well, 49-49-2

with lieberman nominally siding with the democrats. that's why i said "not so much"

[Edited on August 14, 2007 at 4:20 PM. Reason : .]

8/14/2007 4:19:34 PM

touche... for some reason i was thinking it was 52-48 or 51-49...i knew it wasnt any type of landslide but i thought right after the elections everyone basically said "the democrats have gained control of the house and senate"

[Edited on August 14, 2007 at 4:22 PM. Reason : .]

8/14/2007 4:22:14 PM

and people wonder why nothing has gotten passed.

[Edited on August 14, 2007 at 4:29 PM. Reason : meanwhile they don't even know the breakdown of the parties in the senate]

8/14/2007 4:29:31 PM

whatever excuses you have to make to convince yourself that the democrats are so much smarter than the republicans

8/14/2007 4:52:25 PM

Quote :

"On the other hand, it has only taken 7 months for about 70% of Democrats to realize that the Democratic Congress sucks donkey balls too, and we're not happy with where they're going."

Flip-flop!

8/14/2007 11:10:34 PM

Quote :

"but according to the polls, with (roughly) 50-60% of Republicans still approving of Bush after 7 years, I just don't see what he could possibly to do lose their support."

agentlion

Unfortunately, it's a two-party system. Where would these Republicans that you're referring to go? As an alternative, what party do they turn to? The following is what the Democrats have given us:

Quote :

"PRINCETON, NJ -- The percentage of Americans with a 'great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in Congress is at 14%, the lowest in Gallup's history of this measure -- and the lowest of any of the 16 institutions tested in this year's Confidence in Institutions survey. It is also one of the lowest confidence ratings for any institution tested over the last three decades."

http://galluppoll.com/content/?ci=27946

And don't give me any mealy-mouthed bullshit about who's in charge of Congress. The Democrats ran on specific issues, they won Congress based on those issues, and they have been unable to advance their agenda in any meaningful fashion. You get the credit when things go well and the blame when things go wrong--like Bush, am I right? And clearly, the Democrats' constituency is laying the blame squarely at those politicians' feet right now--like it or not.

8/14/2007 11:38:19 PM

^ did you read, or comprehend anything I said?

I don't think Congress should have good approval ratings. I don't think they should be taking credit, and I do agree that they have to take the blame for not doing their jobs.

In other words, I "approve" of the 16% approval ratings - i think they should be lower, even. The Democrats ran on specific issues that they haven't delivered on, and worse, they've stood idly by as Bush has continued to push though legislation that gives him more power (FISA). So here's what I'm saying - the Democrats in Congress should be held accountable. At this point in the election cycle, the best way to hold them accountable is to actively voice our disapproval, which should be heard from both Democrat and Republican citizens. I'm not trying to relieve them of any pressure. Maybe if their approval ratings go down to 5% they will realize they need to stop fucking around and get some work done.

Quote :

"Unfortunately, it's a two-party system. Where would these Republicans that you're referring to go? As an alternative, what party do they turn to?"

WTF are you talking about. I'm not suggesting Republicans "go anywhere". What perplexes me so much is why so many people, Republicans in particular, continue to support ("approve of") this President. It's as if Republicans are scared to say they disapprove of the President for fear that it would be a sign that, *gasp*, they support the Democrats! That's just not true - it's perfectly understandable to remain a Republican and disapprove of this Republican administration, which was exactly the point I was trying to make with this thread, as demonstrated by a much larger number of Democrats voicing their disapproval of the elected Democratic Congress.

8/14/2007 11:59:36 PM

First, you know what you can do with that tired "comprehension" bullshit, right? I'll leave it to your imagination.

Second, I get your point, but it's typically snobby. I mean, most Democrats I have encountered think that they are smarter than Republicans anyway--smarter, better, more caring, and on and on. So, your argument is that Democrats have figured out the politicians in their own party suck so why can't the Republicans do the same? FIRST!

Third, my point was--even though I can't speak for Republicans because I'm not one--I'm sure many Republicans feel (1) that they can ride this elected horse to the finish line; (2) that many things the Democrats are upset with the president about are bogus--and have been shown to be so; (3) that things are not as bad as they have been described to be by most Democrats and the media; and (4) that the Democrats don't have a plan for success about much of anything, and if they did, they couldn't get it done--as evidenced by their dismal approval ratings.

I know it hurts, but let that soak for a while.

8/15/2007 12:21:40 AM

Sure, FISA thing, and the minimum wage thing, but overall things are great. The parties have failed to organize sufficiently for log rolling activities, hence why the Budget Deficit has managed to fall to 1.5% of GDP; a paltry figure, not even keeping up with inflation. Which means, in the grand scheme of things, the debt is shrinking in real terms. And the debt is falling quite fast as a percentage of national income.

That said, it is still inexcusable to be running a deficit at all, since Federal revenues are increasing at an ungodly 7.4% per year.

[Edited on August 15, 2007 at 1:01 AM. Reason : ,.,.]

8/15/2007 12:57:15 AM

^ Most of them here don't know the difference in the debt and the deficit, LoneSnark--they don't like facts. And even if they do, those good numbers don't fit their "ain't it awful because Bush sucks" template.

8/15/2007 1:22:13 AM

The economy is but one aspect of the state of the union, and I suspect one reason it hasn't been fucked by the current administration is they don't understand it enough to manipulate it.

Quote :

"that many things the Democrats are upset with the president about are bogus--and have been shown to be so;"

Who has shown "many things" bogus?

Quote :

"that things are not as bad as they have been described to be by most Democrats and the media; and"

What "things"? FISA is pretty bad. The Iraq war seems to be pretty crappy (we'll have to wait one more month to hear the spin).

Quote :

"that the Democrats don't have a plan for success about much of anything, and if they did, they couldn't get it done--as evidenced by their dismal approval ratings."

As long as the Republicans remain the lock step lemmings they are and not actually voting on traditional republican ideals, then nothing will get done, which is probably a good thing compared to what has gotten done.

8/15/2007 8:50:09 AM

Quote :

"I suspect one reason it hasn't been fucked by the current administration is they don't understand it enough to manipulate it."

Didn't stop FDR or any of his successors.

8/15/2007 9:16:58 AM