Voters take the long view, seeing the need for both a commitment to a 21st century economy and long-term strategies to reduce the deficit. These are complimentary, not exclusive goals. Progressives need to show they are serious about the deficits, but once they do, voters turn to them, not conservatives, for the right spending priorities and answers.
Monthly tracking from Citizen Opinion shows troubling trends in the public’s experience, perceptions and conclusions. Virtually every personal measure has returned to the lowest point on our seven months of tracking and macro-expectations have darkened too. These shifts coincide with news in July of slower job growth, persistently high unemployment and weaker than expected 2nd quarter GNP growth.
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and Democracy Corps, in conjunction with Revolution Messaging, conducted a straw poll of progressive activists, journalists, and bloggers at the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the third year the straw poll has been conducted at the conference, the first time participants have been able to take the poll via text message, and the largest straw poll conducted yet at the conference, with over 300 people participating.
The ‘Tea Party’ is very real and will have a big impact on this year’s election and beyond – but it is important to correctly characterize this movement. The Tea Party is a grass-roots, intensely ideological, conservative Republican movement, fired up by Fox News and Glenn Beck. It is not remotely an independent or populist [...]
National survey of 1,001 2008 voters conducted June 19-22, 2010.
This tracking is for Democracy Corps’ polling at the end of June. While these results were released publicly, we thought it would be helpful for progressive leaders to stare at the results – particularly the stability over the last three months. It should move them to [...]
The monthly tracking on the state of the macro and micro economy makes it even harder to build a short-term economic narrative predicated on national economic progress. That may be possible in years ahead, but difficult in the next four months. A declining number believe the economy is improving, with only 40 percent saying it is “starting to improve” – and a growing number believing it is getting worse. For the great majority of Americans, this is a period of uncertainty. Indeed, over 60 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction – stuck at that level since the first month of positive job numbers.
Congressional battleground survey of 1,200 likely voters in 70 swing congressional districts conducted June 7-10, 2010.
As President Obama issues his new national security strategy, a new Democracy Corps-Third Way survey shows the president continues to earn stronger marks on national security than on the economy or on his overall approval. Moreover, there are signs the president’s recent efforts to address nuclear dangers and terrorism have improved the public’s trust in Democrats on these issues, relative to the Republicans. Since our last joint survey in February, Democrats also slightly narrow the gap with Republicans on national security generally.
The lack of movement in our monthly economic monitor even after a quarter of job growth underscores the urgency of progressives advancing an effective economic message. The current messages coming from President Obama and the national Democrats are demonstrably ineffective — indeed, out of sync with what is happening to people in the real economy. The message has voters looking backward instead of forward, fails to take full advantage of voters’ continuing contempt for Republicans and fails to offer voters a powerful contrast and choice. But there are powerful alternatives to the current approach, which would strengthen the case for progressives and individual candidates.
A presentation based off of Citizen Opinion data that examines the economic experiences of middle class Americans.
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