A new USA Today poll suggests that Republicans are not happy with their very own party:
In thinking about the Republican Party's troubles, consider this: One-third of Republicans now say they have an unfavorable opinion of their party.
There's no such dyspepsia among Democrats. Just 4% have an unfavorable view of their party.
The findings of a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll underscore the perilous state of the GOP. Over the past three years, Republicans have lost control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, and they're now struggling to forge a unified response to the popular new Democratic president.
What makes some Republicans so unhappy? It's hard to tell from that short summary of the findings (and I'm too lazy to look up the data). Perhaps the unhappy people would like to see their party more extreme? Perhaps they are pining for the good ole times, about six months ago, when America was strong?
Or do they want their party to be less extreme? But those folk have probably already fled the party.
This topic is related to what happens when some poll finds that people think the country is on the wrong track: Many writers feel that their particular complaints have been vindicated. Thus, progressive bloggers use these results to indicate that Americans would like to turn left and conservative bloggers use the same results to indicate that Americans would like to turn right. It would seem simple enough to add a question about the manner in which the country has gone off the track, to give us a bit more information. Of course this particular poll may have that question which would let us know more about it later, as the newspaper promises.