For those of us filled with dread, there’s some comforting news in a Morning Consult poll released today.
Some of the findings are pretty obvious, such as Donald Trump being the biggest “issue” for voters of both parties:
President Donald Trump is revered by Republicans and detested by Democrats — and what congressional candidates think of the president is more important than nearly every policy issue polled, including security and health care, for both Republicans and Democrats in the third edition of Morning Consult’s State of the Parties survey.Twenty-two percent of Republican voters said a candidate’s support for the president was the top issue on their minds when casting ballots for House and Senate candidates, while 21 percent of Democrats said opposing Trump was most important.
What’s most interesting about the chart above is what’s NOT on the list: Russia.
One other chart, though, was my feel good story of the day (yellow highlighting added):
Democrats are far more worried, frustrated, angry and depressed than Republicans, and feel much more helpless.
With the GOP in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, most of the party’s voters are feeling confident (61 percent), proud (56 percent) and happy (52 percent), according to Morning Consult surveys of registered voters from each party.Democrats were far more likely to express emotions that reflect their time spent out of power. Most of them are worried (61 percent) or frustrated (58 percent) — and more importantly, some political scientists say, they’re significantly angrier than their GOP counterparts……. in general, GOP voters erred on the side of positivity while Democrats were comparatively gloomy. Sixty-three percent of GOP voters listed positive emotions such as “confident” and “interested” to describe their feelings, compared with 45 percent of Democrats who did the same. Democrats were also almost twice as likely as Republicans, 44 percent vs. 24 percent, to express a negative sentiment, such as “worried” or “frustrated.”
Morning Consult reads into this that Democrats may be more motivated to vote. That makes sense, but still … feelings of helplessness could temper that enthusiasm, as might an increasing feeling among Democrats that the Democratic Party is heading in the wrong direction:
Would it be wrong for me to take satisfaction knowing that Democrats are suffering from feelings of helplessness, depression and anger? Yes, of course it would be wrong. I’m *better* than that.
It’s not like I have watched hundreds of hours of election night “Hillary Supporters Melt Down” videos.
Or put on autoplay videos of the wrong predictions and election night countdown:
Or constantly loop the media reactions:
Nope. Not me.
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