Over the last couple of days I’ve been goggling over this Fox News Poll result, which I’ll have Steve Benen describe for us:
But toward the very bottom on the survey, there was a question we don’t generally see in most national polls:
Which of the following best describes how you feel about Democrats?
“They love America and truly want what’s best for the country,” or “They simply want what’s best for their party, even if it hurts the country.”
Which of the following best describes how you feel about Republicans?
“They love America and truly want what’s best for the country,” or “They simply want what’s best for their party, even if it hurts the country.”
Among likely voters, Democrats didn’t fare all that well: 44% of the public believes Dems love the country and what what’s best for it, while 43% believe Democrats simply want what’s best for their party. Ideally, a popular party would see a much larger gap, with the former easily outnumbering the latter.
But public attitudes about the GOP were quite a bit worse. The Fox News poll found that 36% of likely voters believe Republicans sincerely want what’s best for the country, while a 52% majority sees Republicans putting their party’s interests above the nation’s interests.
If you want the raw data, it’s questions 46 & 47 at the poll link.
Here’s Steve’s graph, just to emphasize:
I’m amazed that Fox News, widely considered the propaganda arm of the White House and GOP[1], permitted that result to go out, as it clearly depicts in general American opinion that Republicans as far worse in the grubby, self-centered politicians department than the Democrats.
But it’s certainly congruent with my observations on the matter, as that happens to be a major trait of second- and third- raters, too often willing to proclaim their patriotism as they enrich themselves in various ways, distracting the voters in various ways.
Having thought about it, I suppose Fox News is really doing the Republicans a service by letting them know the general opinion of them. Of course, such news can be self-reinforcing, but that’s a chance they have to take.
And, if they’re really a news organization, they’re honor-bound to release all the results of the poll. Maybe whoever is running things over there is getting an uneasy feeling about the guy they’ve been busy enabling.
1 Although sometimes just who’s the horse and who’s the carriage is debatable.
