Can GOP Take Advantage of Big Lead on Issues?

Editors at Issues and Insights ask whether Republicans will be able to take advantage of significant polling advantages on major issues.

The same day a Gallup poll showed that Republicans hold a commanding lead with voters on the issues, Republicans in the House were ousting their speaker and a judge was issuing Donald Trump a gag order after he “tweeted” an attack against one the judge’s clerks during his fraud trial. So it goes with the Stupid Party.

Here’s an idea Republicans don’t seem to have considered: Stick to the issues that people care about.

There is a huge, Reagan-sized opportunity here.

It’s not just that the country is worried that President Joe Biden is too old. They don’t believe anything he’s saying. They’re not buying his “Bidenomics” message. They don’t believe his “rescue” plan worked — most say they are worse off than before his “rescue.” They don’t believe he’s made America more respected around the world. They don’t think he’s united the country, or saved democracy. They’re not buying any of it.

The latest Gallup poll findings underscore this in a big way.

“Although both parties are about equally disliked, the public chooses the Republican Party over the Democratic Party by healthy margins when asked which will better safeguard the nation’s prosperity and security,” writes Gallup’s Lydia Saad. She describes it as an “historically ample lead.”

For example, Republicans old a 14-percentage-point lead in public preferences for keeping the country prosperous. Democrats held the lead on this during COVID. And it’s right up there with where Republicans were in the 1980s.

“The GOP’s current standing with Americans is even stronger on matters of national security, where it leads the Democratic Party by 22 points for protecting the country from international terrorism and military threats,” she writes.

Finally, “The recent poll also finds the Republican Party leading the Democrats as the party more Americans choose as better able to handle whatever problem they name as the most important facing the country.”