Thursday, January 26, 2012

Why is Barack Obama's approval ratings high with Democrats and not with Republicans?

When it comes to Barack Obama's approval rating, his ratings have usually been between 50% and 60%. When you ask registered voters who are Democrat and Republican, about 80% of Democrats approve of Obama and over 80% of Republicans disapprove of Obama performance. Is there a reason why Democrats highly approve of Obama and why Republicans disapprove of Obama?Why is Barack Obama's approval ratings high with Democrats and not with Republicans?One of the big problems is that on certain social issues, such as abortion and gay rights, there is no way to logic-out an answer. As a result, the social issues that boil people's blood are very important in their level of approval.



On issues such as the economy and immigration, it is generally numerically-based on whether things are good or bad. However, it is most certainly not concrete how much Obama has done for the economy. On unemployment, Obama has certainly helped (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHZRWGft7鈥?/a> ), but it is unclear what percentage of that is due to stimulus/etc and what is due to a natural market-based recovery from the recession. There are many conservatives that don't believe that Obama has achieved anything in this regard. Although, I have to expose my liberal bias and point out that Obama has created significantly more jobs than Bush did in any of his 8 years in office.



Immigration, the bane of every president's existence, has also become a hot-button issue since the Arizona reform. Obviously, liberals were more sensitive to the Mexican-American legal immigrants who were also targeted by this law, as not having ID became a crime even if no other crime was committed. Conservatives, however, took this as a sign that liberals are soft on immigration. I have to do a quick shout-out to Obama because I do think that it is worth noting that he has deported more people than Bush and, under Bush, 30% of those deportees were criminals whereas under Obama, 70% were, which suggests he is at least doing a better job on immigration than the previous administration.



Another fundamental disagreement between liberal and conservative viewpoints is that sources of news are radically different. Fox News has a very conservative bias and often gets viewers enraged by pointing out Obama's perceived flaws, to the point of stretching the truth (Fox is the only news organization that has gone to court to claim that their right to lie is protected by the 1st amendment). There are, of course, many intelligent commentators on Fox, but people like Glenn Beck get paid to rile people up with Hitler-comparisons and cruel imitations of Obama's children, leading to some of the venomous rage we are seeing from the right in this country. Conversely, sources like MSNBC tend to have a left-leaning bias, although I have yet to catch them in a lie. People, of course, choose to listen to news sources that tend to more closely adhere to their internal moral compass, leading to news that confirms their previously-held opinions. In addition, the psychological phenomenon of the confirmation-bias has been shown to affect our information processing. If a supporter of Obama hears news that tells about both good and bad things Obama has done, they are statistically much more likely to remember the good things, and vice-versa for those who oppose him.



Also, I hesitate to bring this up, but I do think that it is a significant factor: racism is more prevalent among conservatives. Of course, this is not by any means a primary reason that someone would disagree with Obama, but I have heard enough offensive things come out of people's mouths that I am forced to determine that Obama's election has fired up some of that hateful fervor again. This is illustrated by the media's exploitation of Obama's middle name, "Hussein".



I haven't heard any sides on the Iraq war that differ significantly from the arguments under Bush, as Obama has maintained many of Bush's policies in Iraq.



Finally, reforms of all types have been highly contested in both spheres as being too left-leaning and too right-leaning. Personally, this is the issue that I find the most problematic for Obama, and this is the reason that I am uncertain of what I would say about Obama if a pollster asked me. I personally believe that all of these reforms, from healthcare to Wall Street, leave open too many loopholes and opportunities for corporations to exploit the American people. However, many people think they are far too left (and yet again, some feel that they are just right!). This, I believe has been the most divisive element in policies. Conservatives tend to take a tactic of preservation, and worry that radical changes will ruin our country. Liberals... I don't even know. Some just love everything Obama does and some, like me, want more change that will make a real impact.



I, as a liberal, believe that Obama has done a fair job as president, although he is by no means exceptional. I think his excessive compromises show weak leadership in a time where we can't really afford it. However, despite Obama's quest to seem like a moderate, there are huge numbers of conservatives that see him on the far left for various reasons discussed above.



By the way, according to BuisnessWeek, Obama's approval rating for the month of May is 48%.



I hope this helps and I hope that you find a good way to examine all angles of the issues before making your owWhy is Barack Obama's approval ratings high with Democrats and not with Republicans?Obama is a Liberal. Democrats are associated with Liberals. Liberals and Conservatives have opposing views. Conservatives are associated with Republicans.



Were you able to understand that?Why is Barack Obama's approval ratings high with Democrats and not with Republicans?I believe you should check his approval ratings again, they're much lower than what you're saying overall. His ratings are so low because he's not doing all the wondrous things that he promised during his campaign. Maybe "change" wasn't what we needed, huh?Why is Barack Obama's approval ratings high with Democrats and not with Republicans?
because he's a democrat?

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