Across a spectrum of major policy issues, majorities say that each party's positions are generally mainstream -- the only exception is abortion, where most call Republicans too extreme. Voters are more likely to see Democrats as in the mainstream on voting rights and election integrity, immigration and abortion than to say the same of the Republicans. But they're more apt to see Republicans as mainstream on the economy than Democrats.
2) Both parties are seen as in the mainstream by most of the public across a variety of issues --the one exception is the GOP on abortionhttps://t.co/0viTBipqIL pic.twitter.com/ogkQ1ejTdz
— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) July 19, 2022
On the one hand, this means that much of the GOP's demonization of Democrats has failed to connect with voters outside the right-wing bubble -- most Americans don't believe Democrats are radical Marxists deliberately trying to destroy the U.S. economy, or are maintaining "open borders" in order to replace all the white voters with brown-skinned immigrants, or sadistically want to murder babies after they're born.
On the other hand, Democrats and the supposedly liberal media are still failing to communicate how radical Republicans are. I'm glad most of CNN's poll respondents understand that Republican views on abortion are extreme -- but they still don't grasp that Republicans want open carry of AR-15s on every street corner, want legitimate votes tossed out if they're cast for Democrats, and want even lower taxes on the rich and a $7.25 national minimum wage until the end of time, assuming they don't repeal the minimum wage altogether, through either legislation or a Supreme Court decision, which might come before or after Obamacare is repealed or declared unconstitutional, with Social Security and Medicare in the crosshairs. This year Democrats tried to talk about Rick Scott's plan to sunset those entitlements and require Congress to reauthorize them, and to subject even poor Americans to the income tax, but voters didn't notice. But how hard is it to notice that Republicans want guns everywhere? I guess the nothingburger gun bill that just passed was effective cover for them.
Democrats have never been good at poining out that Republican policies are wildly different from what most Americans want. But Republicans are excellent at proclaiming that Democrats are radicals, and that doesn't seem to be working. So maybe it's generally hard to sell most Americans on the idea that one political party is truly radical. That's a problem because Republicans intend to be more and more radical in the future, which means Democrats really need to find a way to deliver that message.
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