Extremism and Polarization

Due to a rocky start in Health Care overhaul and continuous push for government regulation/spending to stimulate the economy, the Obama Administration's popularity has been relatively low. Hence, one would think that the GOP would capitalize and gain popular support. However, it seems that voters seem to be rather weary of politics in general, and not so quick to jump over to the party in opposition, as was the case back in 2004 with the Democratic surge in Congress or 2008 with President Obama taking over the White House.

As I've stated numerous times before, I really think the GOP would garner greater support if extremism escaped their party. Thus far, there are no signs of improvement:

"The headlines focused on growing doubts about Obama's health care plan and the drop in his approval rating, from 60 percent in February to 53 percent now. But the same poll found that while Democrats as a party had a net positive rating of five points (42 percent positive to 37 percent negative), the GOP faced a 13-point deficit. Only 28 percent rated the Republicans positively; 41 percent rated them negatively."

And if you doubt that there still is extremism, here's some examples given that occurred just within the past 3 weeks, which I paraphrased from E.J. Dionne's article from RCP :

1. The birthers have emerged doubting the legitimacy of President Obama's birthplace in Hawaii (wrote about them in an earlier blog post). Sounds ludicrous, but the numbers don't lie: an astounding 28% of Republicans don't believe he was born in the United States.
2. As long as Rush Limbaugh continues to instill fear/indirect racism, nothing is going to change. Here are his thoughts on the Obama Administration: "How do you get promoted in a Barack Obama administration?" he asked. "By hating white people -- or even saying you do, or that they're not good or put 'em down, whatever."... OR why not throw Glenn Beck into the mix, who said that Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture."
3. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said that Section 1233 of the House health bill is an invitation to euthanasia...False. The Government will not dictate which senior citizens will live or die. Section 1233 provides Medicare funding so seniors with life-threatening diseases can consult their doctors on advanced care and be given "an explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title." GOP'ers like Foxx just seem to twist words to, surprise surprise, inject fear into the American public.
   

As to what the GOP can do to galvanize the American public? E.J. Dionne put it perfectly:

"But to take advantage of the opportunities that might come their way, Republicans will have to make themselves an acceptable alternative. They have not done this yet. Facing down extremism and breaking out of the party's regional enclave would be good places to start."

-- To be fair, polarization is deep-rooted in both parties. Currently, the Republicans attract more attention because are the minority party in Capitol Hill. The truth of the matter is we are divided severely across party lines, and there seems to be no "gray area" or commonground that we can agree upon these days, which is said. The fault lies within BOTH political parties: After his first six months in office, Gallup found that only 23 percent of Republicans approved of Obama. After six months in office, Gallup found that only 28 percent of Democrats approved of W. Bush. David Paul Kuhn states that this is contrary to the political state of mind among American 5 decades earlier, in which after six months in office, 60 percent of Republicans approved of John F. Kennedy. After six months in office, 51 percent of Democrats approved of Richard Nixon.

....Thus the bottom line: extreme partisanship has unfortunately been seeded deep into the world of politics, particularly in the past 10 years. In order to avoid fear tactics and corruption, bi-partisanship and compromise are two words that politicians need to become more familiar with for Americans to regain trust in the government.