Where Have All The Republicans Gone?

New polling shows a lot of conflicting data with the president’s approval around a two-year low and congressional disapproval at or near an all-time high. But one thing is clear: There are fewer and fewer people identifying as Republicans in America.

While identification with the Democratic Party is just 1 percent or so lower than it was when President Obama was re-elected, Republican Party ID has gone down from 29.1 percent of Americans polled to 23.3 percent.

What could the GOP possibly be doing to alienate people?

Could it be threatening a government shutdown? Making a hero out of George Zimmerman? Saying that 99 percent of undocumented young people are drug dealers? Running a Cheney? Defining success by all the repeals that they don’t pass?

No one can be sure. But that red line certainly isn’t showing the steady rise it did before the 2010 election.

Other points:

What do you do when everybody hates Washington, D.C.? Pretend you don’t work there. The GOP’s plan for the summer of 2013 is to bash what the nation’s capital represents to most voters, basically acting like they have no connection to it. Some say the reason Republicans like to be elected is to make even Democrats hate the government.

Obamacare’s polling numbers have always been complicated by the fact that many Americans would prefer a much more liberal single-payer health care system. A new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll finds that more funding for Obamacare is nearly as popular as repealing the law: “Given the choice to either repeal the law, wait and see how it takes effect, or add money to aid its implementation, only 36 percent of adults picked outright repeal. More than half chose to either wait and see (30 percent) or provide more money (27 percent).”

Abortion rights are under assault more and more each year since 1995, as this chart from NARAL shows. Republicans know they don’t have public support for overturning Roe v. Wade so they focus on restrictions on clinics and bans after a certain point in a pregnancy, despite the fact that arguments for doing either are weak.

Scott Walker is a Republican hero for one reason: his plan to kill his state’s public sector unions is working. But it certainly didn’t help the economy.

There’s lots of talk about how badly Democrats need Hillary Clinton. The same is as or more true for Republicans and Chris Christie.

What’s on your mind? What are you reading?