Voters Continue to See Congressional Democrats, Republicans as Extreme

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

The number of voters who consider the Republican agenda in Congress as extreme has risen to its highest level yet, while a plurality continues to view the Democrats' that way.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% of Likely Voters describe the agenda of Republicans in Congress as extreme. That finding is up six points from last month and the highest level measured since monthly tracking on this question began a year ago.

In the most recent survey, 35% see the GOP agenda in Congress as mainstream while another 16% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A plurality of voters (45%) says the Democratic agenda is extreme, while 41% see it as mainstream. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure. Since last year, the number of voters who describe the Democratic agenda as mainstream has ranged from 32% to 40%. Those who believe it is extreme have run from 45% to 57%.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 3-4, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Only 12% of voters say President Obama is more politically conservative than they are. A majority (54%) feel the president is more liberal, while another 26% say his political ideology is about the same as their own. These figures have remained consistent since March. Prior to that, the number of voters who viewed the president as more liberal was in the high 50s to low 60s.

Forty-five percent (45%) say the average Republican in Congress is more conservative than they are. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say GOP members in Congress are more liberal than they are, while 20% say they’re about the same.

By comparison, 55% say the average Democrat in Congress is more liberal than they are. Eleven percent (11%) thinks Democrats are more conservative, and another 25% say they’re about the same.

Findings on both of these questions are little changed from past surveys.

Sizable majorities of both Democratic and Republican voters see representatives from their respective parties as mainstream, while most view the opposing party’s ideology as extreme. A majority of voters not affiliated with either party view the Republican agenda as mainstream and the Democratic one as extreme.

While 67% of the Political Class see Democrats as mainstream, 67% view Republicans as extreme. Mainstream voters see members of both parties as extreme.

Congress just can’t win. Most of all voters still lack confidence even their own local representative and want to replace every single one of them.

Voter approval of the job Congress is doing has fallen to a new low - for the second month in a row.

Americans still list being a member of Congress as the least favorable on a list of nine professions.

Republicans hold a two-point lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, August 7.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... as_extreme