On the heels of the GOP wave in last week’s midterm elections, voters appear to be standing behind their decision to overwhelmingly give the Republican Party the reins over Congress.
According to a Gallup poll conducted late last week and into the weekend, 53% of voters want the Republican Party setting the agenda for upcoming year, not President Obama.
This comes as another significant blow to the administration in the face of what is shaping up to be a lame-duck effort to push through some of the most unpopular policies Obama has proposed to-date, namely some form of executive amnesty for the millions of illegal immigrants in the country.
In contrast, voters remain skeptical that anything positive will result from the flip in control of the Senate and that gridlock will continue to be the modus operandi in Washington. Gallup concluded:
“The midterm election provided a clear signal as to which party voters want to control Congress. That message is echoed in the results of the latest Gallup poll showing Americans expressly asking for the Republicans — rather than Obama — to guide the direction the country takes in the next year. But, after four years of partisan gridlock, most Americans are not optimistic that the election’s outcome will improve things.”
The challenge for Democrats is whether President Obama will pursue his own agenda with the same abandon which gave rise to so much voter opposition in this cycle. Should that be his ultimate course of action, pressure will increase on Democrat White House hopefuls to publicly distance themselves from the president.
