Partisan Divide Deepens Under Obama

SO NOW WE know. Despite his promise to heal the partisan divide in America, President Obama is turning out to be the most partisan president in modern history. That’s from the Pew Research Center. Here are the approval numbers from polls taken in the first spring of a president’s first administration.

They are, it must be admitted, sobering, for they show that, far from bringing unity to a divided nation, President Obama has only intensified the division.

President	Tot	Rep	Dem	Ind	R-D
Obama 2009	59	27	88	57	-61
Bush 2001	55	87	36	56	+51
Clinton 1993	49	26	71	47	-45
Bush 1989	56	79	41	48	+38
Reagan 1981	60	87	41	61	+46
Carter 1977	72	56	81	70	-25
Nixon 1969	65	84	55	65	+29

Pretty interesting isn’t it? And you don’t have to look too far to figure out why. Republicans’ worst fears have been realized in Obama. He’s signed a massive payoff to the Democratic special interests in the stimulus bill. He’s sent up a budget to Congress that goes flat out on social spending. And he figures he can run the banks and the auto companies. Democrats may love his agenda, but Republicans don’t.

It’s interesting to look back. Notice that Democrats weren’t as negative on Reagan as they were on Bush. And you gotta say that Reagan was much more conservative than Bush. Presumably the closeness of the 2000 election and the heightened partisan aftermath helped to deepen the divide.

And Nixon! Dems were at 55% approval for President Nixon in the spring of 1969. Imagine that!

Then there is President Carter. He was the Independents’ favorite president in the modern era, at least at the beginning, with a 70% approval rating.

From a Republican partisan view this is great news. It looks like President Obama is failing to build a solid majority party. The road is open for Republicans and conservatives to win back the support of the American people.

But from an American point of view, this is not good. It means more years of the culture war. In the end, someone is going to have to win it outright. That could be nasty.

Sphere: Related Content |

Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.