The Dissatisfied, Angry GOP

The Washington Post is running a series on the state, and future, of the GOP after the disastrous losses in 2006 and 2008 that have pushed it to the margins of relevance and power, and today's installment tells of the frustrations Republican and Republican-leaning voters have with their current leadership.

Fewer than half (49 percent) say the leadership of the GOP is taking it in the "right direction," vs. 42 percent who say it's taking the party in the "wrong direction," according to a new Post poll. (Compare that to November 2005, when 76 percent of Republicans liked the direction of their leaders.) Congressional Republicans don't fare much better--41 percent hold negative views of Republicans in Congress.


In other words, Republicans are not enthused about the people representing their party in Washington.

The one thing the GOP has, it seems, as its energizing and perhaps defining characteristic, is anger at President Obama: a full 46 percent of Republicans say they are "angry" about Obama's policies, while 43 percent are dissatisfied--meaning nearly all Republicans hold negative views of the president.