Shawn Griffiths
According to a new poll from CNN, conducted by SSRS, most of the public doesn't hold either major party in high regard, especially independent voters -- with whom neither party exceeds 20% favorability.
The party facing the biggest warning signal right now is the Democratic Party, which is losing the confidence of its own members. More than half (52%) of aligned Democrats said the party's leadership is headed in the wrong direction.
Overall, the Democratic Party's favorability is at 29% -- a 20-point decline from January 2021 when former President Joe Biden took office. The Republican Party sits at 36% favorability with the public at-large.
In part, the gap between the parties is driven by the fact that more Republicans have a favorable view of their party. Nearly 80% of Republicans and "Republican leaners" have a positive view of the party.
By contrast, 63% of Democrats and "Democrat leaners" hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party -- which again is a substantial drop from the 81% favorability among these voters at the start of Biden's term.
Further, the Democratic Party has a leadership problem.
Not only do a majority of Democratic-aligned voters say the party is headed in the wrong direction, but more than 30% of these voters could not name a party leader that “best reflects the core values” of the party.
Ten percent of these voters named US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 9% named former Vice President Kamala Harris, 8% named US Sen. Bernie Sanders, and 6% named US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
CNN reports that one respondent answered “No one. That’s the problem.”
Frustration With a System That Lacks Representation and Competition
The biggest factor as to why neither major party is viewed favorably by the public are independent voters, a bloc that makes up half of the voting age population in the United States and continues to grow.
Among independents, the Democratic Party holds a 19% favorability rating -- a number the Republican Party beats by only a single percentage point. And yet, these are their only options in any given election.
In most cases, these voters have no choice at all since 90% of elections are safe for one party or the other. This is why it continues to be a paradox that voters largely have an unfavorable view of government and yet the status quo persists.
About half of the public thinks both major parties hold policy positions that are too extreme. As of February, less than third of voters had a favorable view of Congress and about 8-in-10 voters think most of Congress needs to be ousted.
Yet, in about 90% of congressional elections, the incumbent is protected by a marginal percentage of the voting population. The only way they tend to lose their seats is if they resign or are primaried by a member of their own party.
It's a system in which a shrinking partisan minority holds most of the power over electoral outcomes -- and because it is winner-takes-all system, the direction government moves tends to serve the interests of the majority party.
No matter how slim that majority is at any given time.
Either the controlling party gets its way, or nothing gets done at all. As a result, Washington shifts between chaos and stagnation due to increasing dysfunction and divide even as many Americans want the parties to cooperate.