President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have been dealing with dismal polling numbers within the past few months. Specifically, Obama's approval rating has taken a large dive since he's taken office. With an economy in shambles, it's only natural for the American people to start thinking that maybe he isn't doing enough to make things better.
Approval ratings can be mixed bags. Obama's ratings don't necessarily mean that the American people disapprove of his ambitions -- a certain percentage may in fact be liberals who find that the president hasn't moved far enough to the left.
This was the case, in fact, with health care reform. When 49 percent of Americans disapproved of reform, with 46 percent approving, it was because 10 percent of Americans believed that the bill didn't go far enough, that the bill wasn't as liberal as it could have been. So in actuality, 56 percent of Americans were happy with or wanted more changes to health reform, while a minority of Americans, 39 percent, disapproved of reform because they thought it went too far.
With President Obama's ratings, it's highly likely that the shift that we're seeing is due to more progressive voters being disappointed with his failure to enact real liberal reforms. This is quite evident given the most recent polling showing Obama's numbers rising slightly.
A new CNN poll shows that Obama's approval rating went up since last month by three percentage points. Political experts attribute this bump to Obama successfully removing 100,000 troops from Iraq (declaring that combat operations were officially over this past Tuesday). And while a large number of troops still remain in the nation under an "advisory" role, most Americans see this as Obama fulfilling a campaign pledge to get us out of Iraq.
With more progressives pleased at what Obama has accomplished, he has seen a rise in polling numbers. If Obama wants to see those numbers continue to rise, and if Democrats want to see similar numbers, they need to move left, not center-right, in order to achieve that goal.
The number of Americans disapproving of the job performance of Obama and Democrats because of their ideology will not change in the near future. The shift in Obama's approval ratings in recent months is due to a growing number within his base disapproving his job performance, not because a growing number of Americans disapprove of his ideas. As Obama stays true to his progressive ways, his approval rating will go up.
The people voted for "change" in 2008 -- and they still want it.
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