New poll numbers and analysis from Democracy Corps

[DemsUnited]

Date: September 27, 2005
To: Friends of Democracy Corps
From: Stan Greenberg, James Carville
RE: POST-KATRINA UPDATE

Report on New Democracy Corps Poll

The country has lost confidence in George Bush’s leadership, direction and plans for the country and indeed, seems to have closed down on him personally and his conservative project.In this survey – the 2nd after Katrina – 45 percent of American voters say, they are “finished with him.” This is about his performance, about him personally, and his priorities. With growing passion, voters are upset about Iraq, the neglect of America, Bush’s leadership and Katrina, the economy, deficits and gas prices. The result is a growing bloc of voters intent on change, and a diminishing bloc enthusiastic about Bush or his priorities. That is reflected in a major swing to the Democrats in the congressional contests – with a lot to be done to make that real.

That Bush’s numbers continued to weaken after his Jackson Square speech and expressed determination to rebuild the Gulf Coast is particularly telling. After the speech, 63 percent said they are losing confidence in Bush, including 51 percent who say “a lot.”

While Bush’s decline is the force behind the Republicans’ congressional troubles, there is also a congressional dynamic too. Both parties have faltered, as well as the “Republican Congress” in this poll, suggesting the power of anti-Washington messages.

On Katrina, voters are very critical of all levels of government, but that is no solace for George Bush or the Republicans in Congress. The public is much more attuned to what the Democrats are saying – for an independent commission rather than a congressional inquiry; for a
serious look at went wrong, undeterred by attacks about a “blame game.” Indeed, they are all ears when presented with what is going wrong, producing high levels of doubt about what George Bush and the Republicans are doing. The starting point are the deficits and gas prices, but also the role of political appointees (Brown and Rove) and high-level corruption, top end tax cuts, and spending cuts for disaster preparedness in general and the levees, in particular.
<snip>

http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/analyses/Democracy_Corps_September_2005_Memo.pdf

[Hidden Stillness]

1. This is Really Great

Wow, this is fabulous. Everybody should read this entire report--this is a wonderful, exciting trend. It really is happening now!

[newswolf56]

2. This is indeed a turning point. Note the concluding statement...

of the report: "The country, very much disengaged from Bush, very much focused on big problems, is ready to listen to the alternative."

The problem is that -- with the sole exception of John Edwards -- no Democratic candidate offers an alternative: not a real one.

This is because no other candidate is willing to challenge Bush on his resumption of 19th Century robber-baron class warfare against America. No other candidate is willing to denounce how Bush defiantly helps the rich get richer, how Bush's policies methodically impoverish of all the rest of us, how Bush is killing the disabled and the chronically poor just as surely as if he pulled the trigger himself.

But until the Democratic Party follows Edwards' leadership in recognizing what is happening -- that we are being victimized by the resurrection of the most Tyrannosauric forms of capitalism (and that resurrection of the New Deal is therefore our only protection) -- the nation's readiness to listen will be squandered.

This is the great danger of the present: that too many Democratic leaders are no different from the Republicans in being wholly owned servants of the oligarchy -- that once in power they will sell us out as quickly as Bush sold us out. Just as they have already done with NAFTA, CAFTA and the bankruptcy act. Or the forcible doubling of credit-card payments that will bankrupt literally millions more of us after the new compulsory minimums become effective in November: financially speaking, the most calculatedly vicious legislation in all American history.

Thus the overwhelming need to get behind Edwards -- to provide a theme for the 2006 and 2008 campaigns: resurrecting the Democratic Party as the real voice of the People, renewing the great principle of the New Deal: recognition that capitalism is innately savage, intrinsically murderous -- and that the one most important function of government is defense of the People against capitalism's all-consuming greed.

This -- the nature of capitalism and the dire need for a government that acknowledges both capitalism's malevolence and the overwhelming need to protect us against it -- is the bitter truth that unites New Orleans with Iraq. The People sense this already: it is the lesson of downsizing, outsourcing, wage-reduction, pension-looting, skyrocketing prices, methodical destruction of the social safety net.

If the Democratic Party can again find the courage to speak as it did in FDR's time, we will win just as we won then -- and today the stakes are even higher.

[barbaraann]

4. Excellent post.

I hope Al Gore and Wesley Clark read it.

[DemsUnited]

3. Kick -- it's a good report!

[mom cat]

5. This could be the end of the "solid South"...if

the Democratic party is willing to fight for it. There are a lot of poor people, white and black who feel utterly abandoned, mis led and frankly screwed by the repuked. not even the media lap dogs have been able to cover up the stink.
We too, on the left (really the center!) are going to also have too examine our own stereotypes and get over them fast. We need to turn whatever condesention we have toward the South and Southerners around. We do have a common cause with all of the poor and we would do well to welcome them into the fold.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Yeah, well, James Carville and Stan Greenberg, I wonder what they would

think of Bushite corporations tabulating all our votes with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and the silence, complicity and corruption of the Democratic Party leadership on the $4 billion boondoggle of electronic voting. Did you ask them THAT?

I'm sick and tired of this. Americans have opposed Bush and his goddamned war since before the invasion! Polls show a huge American majority, way up in the 60% to 70% range, opposed to every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic--in all polls, across the board, for over a year now. 58% of the American people opposed the war in Feb. '03! (It's over 70% today.) 63% oppose torture UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES (May '04). Something like 90% oppose Bush's massive deficit. And we turned to the Democrats to do something about this--to save our country--and gave them a blowout success in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40! And the biggest election turnout in history! And we COULD NOT get our will enforced! WHY?!

The independent national and state exit polls said Kerry won, hands down--and that information was HIDDEN from the American public, when the TV networks, acting in concert, late on election day, FALSIFIED their own exit poll data (Kerry won) to "fit" the "official result" from Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won)--and the Democrats SAID NOTHING, DID NOTHING. In addition, hundreds of thousands of black voters were prevented from voting--and the Democrats said and did nothing.

What the Hell is going on here?

I'm just so mad and so fed up with this. It is NO SURPRISE to ME that Americans hate Bush and everything he stands for. They made that judgment long ago, and THREW HIM AND HIS CARTEL OUT OF OFFICE.

And yet we get these mealy-mouthed, sort of pro-war, and maybe against looting Social Security, and, oo-oo-oo better not mention torturing prisoners or slaughtering tens of thousands of people or leaving the corpses of abandoned black poor people floating around New Orleans, prissy, corrupt, fat and well cared for, goddamned Democrats, saying NOTHING about the "trade secret," proprietary, behind-closed-doors "counting" of our votes!

The "tide" turned long ago! This is not new. What is new is that it DOESN'T MATTER. They don't care. Neither the criminal Republicans nor the Democratic colluders. They are not beholden to us any more. They are beholden to the far rightwing billionaires who own and control Diebold and ES&S.

PLEASE, people, wake up! Or all you're going to get out of this is the installation of a War Democrat who promises NOT to loot Social Security, and a military Draft (which Bush cannot accomplish). They need a Dem to start taking the rap for the disasters of this regime--to pave the way for Jeb in '12. That's my read on it.

We have been DISENFRANCHISED! And we MUST change this--and throw these election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor'--or our democracy is over.

[Old Mouse]

7. Well said.

All it takes to have the majority is the illusion of a majority, and controlling the press is the answer to that.

Our only hope is to turn enough Bush supporters and everyone line up behind a single cause and single candidate so there can be no possible question of the result, no ability to use back channel voter manipulation.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. It's been a bad act from the start...

[newswolf56]

9. Kick!