Opinion: GOP Too Extreme
A majority of Americans think the GOP is too extreme.
According to new polling by CNN, 53 percent of Americans think that the Republican party's policies and views as too extreme. Nearly a quarter of Republicans (22 percent) think their party is too extreme.
Fewer than a third of Americans trust congressional Republicans more than President Barack Obama to deal with the major issues facing the nation.
More than a month after the election, things continue to get worse for the GOP brand.
The same number of Americans, 53 percent, believe that Republicans need to compromise more.
The lead Republican spokesperson during the fiscal cliff negotiations, House Speaker John Boehner, has a 34 percent approval rating. President Obama has a 54 percent approval rating.
Yet Republicans insist that it is their way or the highway... that ends at the fiscal cliff.
This past fall, it was clear that only Democrats had an economic plan they could put numbers behind a present to the public. From Mitt Romney on down the GOP ballot Republicans offered only fuzzy math and a raw deal for the American public.
Math was a central flaw Republicans could not get over as they lost the presidency and seats in both the House and Senate.
That same inability to understand math is a problem for Republicans as the House is ready to lead the party in yet another humiliating defeat over an unpopular stand.
Republicans are willing to go over the fiscal cliff in a doomed effort to keep tax rates low for the highest income earners.
That Republican policy and the Republican Party they belong to are growing increasingly unpopular. If House Republicans insist on losing this battle they will be weakened for the next two years.
Given what our country has been through in the last week you'd hope that maybe the GOP House leadership could get serious.
But they are not serious people. They are not leaders, they are followers of a fringe wing of their party that is slowly but surely destroying the Republican Party.
When a quarter of your own people think you too extreme and they share that view with a majority of Americans you are doing a lot of things wrong.
Don't expect the GOP to consider that as they launch the country over the fiscal cliff.
About Bill Buck
Bill Buck is a Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.
