The Sunshine Empire

A common refrain from Republican and conservative lawmakers and pundits is that the country is not in favor of the public option nor health care reform in general. Orange House Minority leader John Boehner famously said then retracted that he had not met one person that was in favor of the public option. Yet reading the latest poll from The Washington Post/ABC News tells a much different story. 57% of the American people are in favor of the public option, and if the idea is limited to those who can’t afford private insurance 76% of the public and even 56% of Republicans suddenly become in favor. This again proves that the only thing truly standing in the way of health care reform that includes a public option is Congressional Democrats. Yet that is not the only remarkable number from the polling.

For all the talk during the tea bag summer of discontent about the country finally turning against Obama and his policies, the President now enjoys a 57% approval rating that is above his election percentage. Yet many circles continue to paint the normal drop that a President suffers in mid-term elections that many see coming as much more of a wave election. Things may change in the year until the 2010 midterms but the polling as it stands now does little to back the fantasy idea in Republicans heads of a repeat of 1994. Only 20% of adults now identify themselves as members of the Grand Old Party. This number is stagnant despite the glee some tea baggers were showing in August. Yet the startling thing is not that those identifying themselves as Democrats beats that at 33%, it’s that self identifying independents beats all at 42% percent.

Any figure that could organize those 42% that are independent into a party could transform American politics in a way that would dwarf even the effect of Obama. The United States seems calcified into a two party state, but those two parties haven’t always been the Democrats and Republicans. It is doubtful that the independents would be viable as a third party, but they could move to reorganize and eliminate one of the two existing major parties. If the ideological purification currently overtaking the Republican party continues at the pace it’s at, moderate Republicans like Olympia Snowe (who’s office is being inundated with deliveries of rock salt by bitter right wingers over her health care reform vote in committee) could pair with independents and make a more center right party. The Republican party would become a fringe party much like the Liberal Democrats in Britain. Yet this is all speculation and a year can be an eternity in politics.

Related posts:

1. The Public Option Lives As Bipartisanship Dies
2. On The Public Option And Bankrupting UPS
3. The Discussion Has Become Impossible
4. What The Public Option Really Is
5. Lying Works In The Fight Against Health Care Reform