How Republicans Are Duping Members of Their Own Party

[WilliamPitt]

How Republicans Are Duping Members of Their Own Party
GOP intransigence reflects the views of rank-and-file Republicans, right? Wrong. Michael Tomasky on the poll that exposes a party devoted to ignoring the voice of its own voters.

It’s grade-school civics that the two parties in Washington represent the views of the people who sent them there, and usually, it’s true, or true enough. But a funny thing is happening on the way to the fiscal cliff, which is that Washington Republicans, according to a very interesting new poll, are not representing the positions of rank-and-file Republicans. So whose views are they representing? Good question. And here’s another good question: Why can’t Washington Republicans recognize how deeply unpopular their positions are and just get down to the business of making a deal that would work and would have broad support in the country? Hmmm.

The poll comes from the McClatchy News Service and was conducted by Marist. It asked respondents what they would and would not support as part of a grand fiscal bargain. The top-line results are typical: People first and foremost want to see taxes go up on the high end.

But here’s the good stuff. Breaking down results to Republican respondents only, their positions are as follows. By 47-37, they oppose letting the current payroll tax cut expire (an Obama position). By 68-26, they’re against cutting Medicare spending. By 61-33, they oppose cutting Medicaid spending (yes, Medicaid spending!). By 66-28, they’re against eliminating the home-mortgage interest deduction. By 72-25, they oppose eliminating the charitable contribution deduction. And by 56-44, less overwhelming but still very much a landslide in political terms, they just say no to raising the Medicare eligibility age.

Please read those numbers over one more time. That’s Republicans. Supporting “liberal” positions by huge margins. Okay, the two deductions, for mortgage and charity, aren’t necessarily liberal positions only, but in the current context, it’s prominent Republicans like Paul Ryan and John McCain and others who keep saying that the only tax reform they’ll consider is the type in which marginal rates are lowered and these loopholes are closed. So even there, Republican voters are opposing their own leaders. But look at that Medicaid number in particular. Kind of amazing. Gee, do you suppose that Republicans, who do tend a bit more toward the geriatric end of the age scale, understand that Medicaid pays for nursing-home care for middle-class people?

The rest: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/13/how-republicans-are-duping-members-of-their-own-party.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

[mike_c]

1. this is consistent with prior polls showing...

...that when asked simple, clear questions about fiscal and social issues, divorced from partisan context, the overwhelming majority of Americans support quite liberal positions on many issues. It's primarily the partisan framework that keeps the two major party's voters at odds with one another.

[phantom power]

4. +oo

[Scuba]

6. +1

[unblock]

2. republicans follow the money, which they then use to buy votes.

money rolls in every day but federal elections happen only every couple of years. the republican strategy is to spend the vast majority of their time and effort serving the interests of those able and willing to contribute financially, then convert that loot into votes at election time, mostly through deceptive and negative advertising, which can be quite effective if heavily funded.

given a choice between their rank-and-file and their major donors, they'll go with the major donors the vast majority of the time. it's only near election time that they'll even stop to think about it, and then, usually only about how to lie about it.

[LeftInTX]

7. +1

[kentuck]

3. The "partisan" card is very strong in both Parties...

They vote Party line, regardless of position, but especially so with the Republican Party.

[bluestate10]

5. Knowing some republicans, what seems to be happening is a split is developing between

the better educated ones and the less educated ones and between the urban/suburban ones and rural republicans. Charlie Crist is the tip of a group that has formed, most will go Independent and stay that way unless they want to run for office, then they will become Democrats.

[Faryn Balyncd]

8. Republican SPECIALIZE in duping & exploiting their own voters.