WE'RE WELL ON OUR WAY TO "A BIG, STRONG REPUBLICAN PARTY," NANCY

This is a scary chart (click to enlarge):

Gallup reports:

On average, Americans' political party preferences in 2021 looked similar to prior years, with slightly more U.S. adults identifying as Democrats or leaning Democratic (46%) than identified as Republicans or leaned Republican (43%).

However, the general stability for the full-year average obscures a dramatic shift over the course of 2021, from a nine-percentage-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter to a rare five-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter.

... The Republicans last held a five-point advantage in party identification and leaning in early 1995, after winning control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the 1950s. Republicans had a larger advantage only in the first quarter of 1991, after the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf War led by then-President George H.W. Bush.

Americans are unhappy about inflation, supply-chain problems, and the persistence of COVID -- but they don't see Democrats defending themselves, or criticizing Republicans apart from Trump (and occasionally Marjorie Taylor Greene). They see Democrats defending Republicans. Yes, Nancy Pelosi is arguing in this clip that the GOP has been hijacked, but she's also implying that good, decent Republicans could take the party back if they had the will, because they're really the majority of the party:

Speaker Pelosi: "I say to my Republican friends, take back your party. The country needs a big, strong Republican Party. And I say that as a leader in the Democratic Party... Don't have it be a cult of personality on the extreme, extreme, extreme right." pic.twitter.com/dpfDI6xy9U

— The Hill (@thehill) September 10, 2021

(Nancy, how is Republican climate change denial part of a "cult of personality"? Who's the person? Charles Koch? It certainly isn't Donald Trump, because this denialism predates Trump's time in politics.)

When every story about the January 6 committee focuses on Brave Republican Liz Cheney, rather than on the Democrats who make up the committee's majority, it sends the message that Democratic beliefs are invalid unless they're validated by a member of the GOP. Keep sending that messageand people will believe it. (I'd love to know how many Americans can name the chair of the committee, Demoocrat Bennie Thompson.)

Democrats don't assert that Democrats have better ideas. Republicans assert that Democrats are maniacal freedom-hating extremists. Democrats root for Republicans. Republicans root for themselves.

This would be a tough moment for Democrats no matter what -- high gas prices, Omicron -- but they're not helping themselves. They're helping the other guys.