No wonder Mitch McConnell says his top priority is
defeating President Obama, not creating jobs
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
From CNN's
latest poll (October 14-16, ±3%):
In general, do you hope that Barack Obama's policies will succeed, or do you hope that his policies will fail?
Total
Succeed: 67
Fail: 25
Democrats
Succeed: 92
Fail: 5
Independents
Succeed: 66
Fail: 24
Republicans
Succeed: 39
Fail: 51
Okay, I don't really have a problem with the fact that Republicans want President Obama himself to fail. That's just the nature of a partisan political system. But rooting for his policies to fail is utterly pathetic, not just because it's the country that suffers if his policies fail, but also because these Republicans are rooting for the failure of policies that they support.
According to the poll, 58% of Republicans support the payroll tax holiday, 63% support federal aid for teachers and first responders, 54% support federal aid for rebuilding roads, bridges, and schools, and 56% support raising taxes on income more than $1 million. The only policies they opposed were aid to unemployed workers and raising taxes on income over $250,000.
But even though Republicans support most of the policies in President Obama's jobs proposal by a wide margin, a majority of Republican voters also want those policies to fail. That's a terrible and self-destructive case of misplaced priorities, putting their hatred of the president ahead of their own views about what's in the best interest of the country.
With numbers like this, it's not hard to understand why every single Republican senator voted against the jobs bill despite its overwhelming popularity. It's a perfect example of the utter dysfunction of American politics—and how the heart of that dysfunction is located within the G.O.P.