THIS SHOULD SURPRISE NO ONE WHO’S BEEN PAYING ATTENTION: Analytics show Democrats twice as radical, GOP more moderate.
To hear Democrats talk about Republicans, it’s pretty easy to get the impression that they are all right-wing rabble-rousers made more conservative after the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), for example, this week ranted about having to work with unbending “terrorists” across the aisle. . . .
But it’s not the Republicans who have radicalized over the past 50 years, but the Democrats, and by a huge margin, according to a deep dive into the latest CPAC ratings.
In one of the biggest surprises revealed since the ratings began, there are twice as many Democrats with perfect zero conservative ratings in the House and Senate today than in 1971. And there are significantly fewer Republicans with 100% ratings in the House and Senate today than 51 years ago.
The just-published 52nd Ratings of Congress from CPAC’s Center for Legislative Accountability found 14 House members and just three senators — Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Mike Braun (R-IN) — with 100% ratings on the issues the group cares about. In 1971, there were 61 perfect House Republicans and 11 100% senators, including conservative giants Barry Goldwater of Arizona, New York’s James L. Buckley, and South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond.
The CPAC report found Democrats much more moderate decades ago. In 1971, there were 23 senators with zero ratings on the CPAC report card of conservative issues. Today there are 38, more than half the Democratic Caucus. In the House, there were 39 perfect liberal voters in 1971 compared to 76 today. Plus, there are dozens of House liberals with a 3% rating.
CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp said the analytics show that many Republicans come to Washington and face-plant into the swamp’s deep end over time.
Gentry-class tribalism pulls Republicans left, while not restraining Democrats’ leftward lurches at all.