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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Cruzmentum! A bump in the polls for extremism.

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Yesterday’s PPP report showed that Ted Cruz’s entry into the presidential race has shaken up the polls.

Republican Primary voters, March 26 through March 31st (PDF):

– Scott Walker 20% (down from 25%)

– Jeb Bush 17% (steady)

– Ted Cruz 16% (up from 5%)

– Ben Carson and Rand Paul 10%

– Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee 6%

– Chris Christie 4%

– Rick Perry 3%

From PPP:

Cruz has really caught fire with voters identifying themselves as ‘very conservative’ since his announcement. After polling at only 11% with them a month ago, he now leads the GOP field with 33% to 25% for Walker and 12% for Carson with no one else in double digits.

Now that the “severely conservative” wing of the party has a standard bearer, the 2016 nominating contest is starting to shape up as a race between the establishment, the true believers, and those who have not yet figured out that when Scott Walker says “you don’t have to move to the center to win the center” he means that he lies to the center to get them to vote for him. The Wall Street Journal is making it their business to point out every Walker flip-and-flop because Jeb(!).

From Ed Kilgore:

We’ll soon see if Carson or Huckabee can get some of this support back, or if it’s leeched away by Scott Walker, or if Rick Perry or Bobby Jindal or Rick Santorum or some combination of them can poach on it with their own announcement events. All I’ll say at this point is that it sure looks like a different nominating contest dynamic with someone clearly on top of the hard-core conservative pile than without it. A more divided right-wing vote keeps Jeb Bush at or near the top.

As the Republican Party moves further and further away from the mainstream, with their anti-immigration, anti-gay agenda, Ted Cruz will become the face of the Republican Party. Purdy, ain’t it?

More …

Meanwhile, extremism in Indiana is having mixed results.

GE’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt:

In a letter to Pence dated Wednesday, Immelt said he was “very concerned about the potential impact the Religious Freedom Restoration Act could have on our company and our employees.” […]

“We have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind,” Immelt wrote. “The impact of laws in other states could have a very negative impact on our employees and their communities.”

“I urge you, the Indiana legislature, and other state leaders across the country, to make it clear immediately that the state does not permit discrimination of any kind, including discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Immelt wrote.

Indiana, and Arkansas, have taken a right-turn while the rest of the country is moving forward.

What does this mean for the GOP? Greg Sargent in the WaPo reminded us about the pretty words in the Republican Party’s 2012 Postmortem:

For the GOP to appeal to younger voters, we do not have to agree on every issue, but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view. Already, there is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays – and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.

That postmortem concluded that the GOP needs to change the optics of their misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-people of color … in words but not in deeds. That is why Mike Pence, in his press conference on Tuesday said “perception” a dozen times. The GOP wants to change the perception of their party without changing the policies of their party.

America may be “split” on this issue now but the next generationis poised to punish those on the wrong side of history:

A Pew poll from September of 2014 found Americans split: 49 percent said businesses providing wedding services should be required to provide those services to same-sex couples, even if they have religious objections; 47 percent said they should be allowed to refuse those services. But 62 percent of Americans age 18-39 say they should be required, versus only 39 percent who say they should be allowed to refuse.

You are supposed to do a postmortem to find out what you did wrong (why the patient died) so that you can avoid doing the same thing and killing another patient. Instead, Republicans are embracing the extremists and doubling down on their intolerance. Or maybe they are still waiting for the Ohio results that will surely put Romney over the top.

Editors Note: You are welcome to treat this post as an open news thread.


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/ 16 Comments

16 comments

  1. JanF

    PPP reported that Marco Rubio clocks in at a 55% favorability rating in the latest poll.

    So will we see some Rubiomentum? Which wing of the party will he take points from? And does anyone really care what Rand Paul does?

  2. Diana in NoVa

    If we had a real fourth estate, as opposed to our actual Rethug-owned fourth estate, journalists would quiz him mercilessly about lying about his parents fleeing Castro’s Cuba. Cu-bazi!

    The Rethugs are in disarray. And as for Ted Cruz Missile, someone should lob one at him for hypocritically signing up for “Obamacare” while trying to bring it down.

    If only karma would get these people!

    Thanks for this summary, Jan, I always appreciate posts that are short and sweet but still make the point. My brain has been ruined by the Internet. I cannot focus on really long essays any more. 🙁

  3. JanF

    McDonald’s Increases Pay And Benefits For Workers

    The company said it will increase wages by more than 10 percent across the board, lifting its average hourly wage to $9.90 starting in July and by $10 by the end of 2016. The current average is $9.01. About 90,000 employees will see a raise. The increase won’t apply to restaurants operated by franchisees, however, which is nearly 90 percent of the stores across the country, as it says they are free to set their own pay policies.

    As part of the same announcement, the company said that it will give workers who have been with the company for more than a year up to five paid days off a year.

    Living wages, income equality, and keeping the safety net intact will be big issues in 2016. There is not a single candidate on the Republican side poised to address these issues except via lip service. I am hoping people see through that and vote for the only party that really cares about people’s lives and livelihood.

  4. JanF

    Poll: Bush now tops GOP field; Clinton runs ahead of all Republicans

    Bush tops the field with 20 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents saying they would support him if their primary or caucus were held today. He is followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 13 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 12 percent. Five other Republicans receive at least 6 percent support, with an additional six candidates at either 2 or 1 percent

    HAHAHAHA!!

    Most Republicans are not well known, but at this point, not a single one of six Republicans included in the survey has a favorability rating that is net positive.

    Bush – by far the best known among those running for the GOP nomination – is viewed favorably by just 33 percent of the public, while 53 percent say they view him unfavorably.

    Only Clinton among all those included in the poll has a net positive rating, but by the slender margin of three percentage points (49-46 percent).

    Hello, WaPo, let me do the math for you:

    – Bush, -20 net favorable

    – Clinton, +3 net favorable

    That is a difference of 23 points, not as slender as it appears when put in context.

    And the head to head matchups attest to that:

    Tested against four possible Republicans in a general election – Bush, Cruz, Walker and Rubio – Clinton holds double-digit leads in every case. Bush does marginally better than the others, but trails by 53 to 41 percent among registered voters, while Cruz runs weakest at 54 to 37 percent.

    Clinton’s supporters are more passionate about their candidate than are Bush’s supporters. More than eight in 10 Clinton supporters say they are enthusiastic, with more than four in 10 saying they are very enthusiastic. Among Bush supporters, while almost seven in 10 say they are enthusiastic, just over one in 10 say they are very enthusiastic.

  7. JanF

    Angie’s List rejects ‘religious freedom’ law fix, calls it ‘insufficient’

    “Our position is that this ‘fix’ is insufficient,” Angie’s CEO Bill Oesterle said in a statement Thursday morning. “There was no repeal of RFRA and no end to discrimination of homosexuals in Indiana.” […]

    Oesterle said that even with the proposed change, “Employers in most of the state of Indiana can fire a person simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning.

    “That’s just not right and that’s the real issue here. Our employees deserve to live, work and travel with open accommodations in any part of the state.”

    The rejection of the deal by Oesterle is significant because Angie’s List, an online consumer ratings company, has called off a significant expansion of its Near-Eastside corporate campus over the passage of RFRA. The proposed 1,000-job expansion would have included $18 million in subsidies from the state and city.

    The Angie’s List CEO has said he won’t partner with the state in the expansion as long as the RFRA remains intact and protections against those in the LGBT community aren’t put in place.

    Chris Christie has issued a statement saying that he looked into Mike Pence’s heart: “I know Mike Pence, and he’s got nothing but love in his heart for people and I just do not believe that in any way Mike Pence would intend for anything that happen in his state on his watch to be discriminatory towards any person”

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