The Base Is Restless

I'm late coming to this, but Dave Weigel is right: This WSJ poll of GOP primary voters is pretty damn interesting. 59 percent of Republican voters agreed with the statement that "foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy, because imports from abroad have reduced demand for American-made goods, cost jobs here at home, and produced potentially unsafe products." Sixty-one percent supported "tougher regulations to limit imports of foreign goods." Fully a third stated that they would support "some tax increases" in order "to help reduce the federal deficit and to pay for expanding health care programs to cover the uninsured." For the party of free trade, free markets, and low taxes, these ought to be very troubling numbers.

(Incidentally, 48 percent said that the next President should take a "different approach" from George W. Bush, up seven points in four months.)

Comments

"48 percent said that the next President should take a "different approach" from George W. Bush, up seven points in four months."

If only there were a magic button which could be pressed that would send the other 52% to some inhabitable planet 200-300 light years away...

(But I hope the potable water there would smell like skunk spray, because they deserve that much.)

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | October 16, 2007 10:17 PM

Ross said:

"For the party of free trade, free markets, and low taxes, these ought to be very troubling numbers."

The reality, of course, is that the base of the GOP was never really in love with free trade, and though they like tax cuts, they don't demand them with the monomaniacal focus one would expect from the volume with which GOP candidates proscribe them. Much of that is due to a very small, powerful group of elites (such as Grover Norquist). It's pretty well documented in Jon Chait's book The Big Con.

Posted by Lev | October 16, 2007 10:22 PM

They could be troubling numbers. Or they could be a promising sign that an ideology whose policies have utterly failed to provide the people of this country with what they need to succeed is finally evolving. I know it's been said many times, but the most damning failure of any political movement is the inability to wield power effectively. Maybe this shows a willingness for Republican voters to redefine what it means to be a conservative in America.

Posted by Freddie | October 16, 2007 10:32 PM

Freddie writes: "They could be troubling numbers. Or they could be a promising sign that an ideology whose policies have utterly failed to provide the people of this country with what they need to succeed is finally evolving."

Yeah, and we almost had them doing just that... but then you had to go and use a word like "evolving." Now the base is going to throw a hissy fit and go back to their Secret Snakehandling Caves, dragging their wimmenfolk behind them.

Balls.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | October 17, 2007 12:49 AM

Look at the numbers--majority against foreign trade, minority for more taxes for more benefits--and consider whether it might be better to describe the base as nativist rather than simply conservative.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | October 17, 2007 9:36 AM

How does this square with the claims that none of the candidates are really conservatives, and therefore no one from the base will vote for them?

Posted by Dan | October 17, 2007 9:53 AM

Stoogeman ever ready to offer his insights. The Republican base has become more isolationist on economic and foreign policy; which is a bad sign.
On economics, the last time this happened in a large way; this preceded the Smoot Hawley tariff
and the collapse of the international economy. Which leads to consequence # 2; aversion to large
scale military interventions exactly at a time when Russia, China & Iran are exerting military and political efforts in the world. The latter will provoke a nuclear arms race with Egypt, Saudi
Arabia & Tunisia against Iran, and what fun we'll
have.

Posted by narciso | October 17, 2007 9:20 PM

I finally realized where I'd seen narciso's prose style before - in the garbage pamphlets given out by disciples of Lyndon LaRouche.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | October 18, 2007 12:31 AM