Finally, we're validating something I've suspected for a while. Whenever you'd hear some horrible poll like "99 percent of Republicans think Trump is the second coming of Jesus," no one bothered to point out that the Republican party was shrinking. Now we know that, according to Gallup, the Democratic brand is enjoying more popularity than it's seen in almost 10 years. Via The Week:
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."
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.
Only two years ago, the Gallup poll reported the Republican party had its highest rating in seven years!
I guarantee you: These numbers won't affect how the media covers politics. We won't see warm profiles of Biden voters in small-town diners, nor will reporters abandon the idea that Trump is a government in exile, and Republicans will assuredly regain the Senate in 2022.
But now we know that Republicans really aren't the majority, and it's a shame the Beltway media will be unable to admit it.
