"I think what we have to do as a party is battle the damage to the Democratic brand," Democratic National Committee Chairman Jamie Harrison said on The Daily Beast's latest New Abnormal podcast. Gallup reported Wednesday that, at least relatively speaking, the Democratic brand is doing pretty good. In the first quarter of 2021, 49 percent of U.S. adults identified as Democrats or independents with Democratic leanings, versus 40 percent for Republicans and GOP leaders, Gallup said. "The 9-percentage-point Democratic advantage is the largest Gallup has measured since the fourth quarter of 2012. In recent years, Democratic advantages have typically been between 4 and 6 percentage points." New Gallup polling finds that in the first quarter of 2021, an average of 49% of Americans identify with/lean toward the Democratic Party, versus 40 percent for Republicans. That's the largest gap since 2012:https://t.co/YpUvqBKxLx pic.twitter.com/JrNXQvisbv — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 7, 2021 When Gallup stripped out the independents, 30 percent of U.S. adults identified as Democrats, 25 percent as Republicans, and 11 percent were independents with no partisan leanings. The rise in the number of independents, to 44 percent from 38 percent in the previous quarter, "correlates with the decline in Republican Party identification, just as in 2013, when the GOP saw a drop in the popularity during the government shutdown over the Affordable Care Act," Gallup says. Democratic affiliation has hovered around 30 percent for most of the past eight years. Party identification, polled on every Gallup survey, is "something that we think is important to track to give a sense to the relevant strength of the two parties at any one point in time and how party preferences are responding to events," Gallup senior editor Jeff Jones told USA Today. Republicans recovered from their 2013 deficit "to make gains in the 2014 midterm elections and are hoping to duplicate that feat in 2022," Gallup notes. "Like in 2014, their hopes may rest largely on the popularity level of the incumbent Democratic president." Gallup currently has President Biden's approval rating at 54 percent. Peter Weber
CA dems just nuked decades of working rights via Prop 22, and now they're trying to pass a law with a mandatory 3-25 year sentence if a person is found with something containing fentanyl. TX and the US in general would still be in a death spiral, just a slightly slower one with slightly nicer social aesthetics for a few people (maybe).
No one's saying Democrats are good. It's more that they'll do some decent things, on occasion, when they're forced to, while Republicans won't.
Look at marijuana legalization, which is a huge blow to mass incarceration. That's almost entirely a Democratic project at this point. You're never getting anything that good out of Republicans.
Both parties suck, but they do not suck equally.
Just a bad cop / good cop dynamic, in my view.
Prop 22 is a ballot proposition, CA govt had nothing to do with it. This ballot proposition was made to undo the California Law AB5 which made drivers employees.
There could have been a concerted effort to stop it. If CA Dems gave a shit about workers, this is what would have happened. Instead, they ignored it and ceded the fight to Uber. I see your point that it was a ballot measure and therefore not the direct responsibility of lawmakers, but the fact that such a big thing slipped through just shows how hostile the party is towards workers in CA.
Uber and Lyft spent $200 million in advertising. If you ordered anything from an app (Uber, Doordash, etc) you saw messages about how Yes on 22 was good. Drivers had to agree to vote yes on 22 in order to use the Uber app. The ads were literally everywhere
CA Dems passed a bill to make Uber drivers employees. Ubers sued and the courts held that up. Newsom is bad and didn't say much about 22 but the California Dem Party told people to vote no on 22
It was an insuffucient response and any legit contender would have recognized what was happening and put in more resources. The CA Dem party told people to vote no in like the fine print of one mailer that only a few people got. This failure, in my view, was intentional -- at best they didn't give a shit and that's basically the same thing as perpetuating the grift.