As the top chart shows, the Republicans (and voters who lean Republican) are not happy with their party leadership. At least 52% believe their leaders are taking the party in the wrong direction, while only 37% like the direction the party is taking. That's 20% more disaffected Republicans than this same poll showed just last August (when only 32% thought the party was moving in the wrong direction), and marks the first time (since 1994) that this poll has shown a majority believing their leaders are taking them in the wrong direction.
And that's not the only problem for Republicans. The poll shows a new low in the number of people who are willing to identify themselves as Republicans. Normally, about a third of the population identifies as Republican and another third as Democrat. But while the Democratic identification has remained at about 31%, the Republican identification has dropped to 21% (10 points below the 2003 average, and 3 points down from last year's average). The pushing of a far-right-wing ideology and an absolute refusal to compromise with Democrats has seriously damaged the GOP's "brand" with the public.
The Republicans could improve this by moderating some of their views and starting to compromise with Democrats for the good of the country. But so far, they have shown no desire to do this -- and I don't believe they will anytime soon. In fact, they are already starting to talk about shutting down the government in the debt ceiling talks that will come up about October of this year -- a move that is sure to anger the public (68% of which stated in this poll that they want the parties to cooperate on issues).
Meanwhile, the Democrats are very happy with their own party leadership. About 72% say their leadership is moving in the right direction (up 6% from this same poll last August).
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