Chart ‘O the Day: polarization edition
by digby
Views of the president among members of the opposing party have become steadily more negative over time. Our 2014 report on political polarization documented this dramatic growth in partisan divisions over views of presidential job performance. Over the course of Obama’s presidency, his average approval rating among Democrats has been 81%, compared with just 14% among Republicans.
During Eisenhower’s two terms, from 1953-1960, an average of 49% of Democrats said they approved of the job the Republican president was doing in office. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, an average of 31% of Democrats approved of his job performance. And just over a quarter (27%) of Republicans offered a positive assessment of Clinton between 1993 and 2000. But the two most recent presidents – George W. Bush and Obama – have not received even this minimal level of support.
I would have thought the polarization over Bush was mostly about the fact that he used the levers of power in his brother Jeb’s state and his father’s Supreme Court appointees to steal the election from the man who won the popular vote in the country. And the polarization of Obama would likely be because he’s well … black. But apparently this is a long term trend.
Interestingly, in my experience, people on the leftmost end of the dial are more convinced than ever that there’s literally no difference between presidents at all regardless of party. I don’t think that’s true on the right.
Also too and apropos of nothing, I wonder if most people are aware of this?
High-profile presidential scandals don’t always cause huge or lasting drops in public approval. Clinton first reached his all-time high job approval of 71% in our February 1998 poll, amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clinton again reached the 71% mark in our late December 1998 poll, after his impeachment by the House of Representatives. Reagan’s approval rating dropped to 49% in January 1987 during the Iran-Contra scandal, but he left office two years later with a 63% rating.
But Richard Nixon’s approval declined steadily throughout the Watergate scandal. His rating reached a high of 68% in January 1973, following his re-election, but plummeted to a low of 24% by the time he left office in August 1974.
But that will not stop the right from trying again. Clinton is their great white whale and if they can’t get him they’ll happily take her down as a proxy. The fact that she’s a woman makes it all the sweeter.
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