Democrats Fiddle as Obama's Approval Burns

The latest Quinnipiac poll puts Obama's approval rating at a new low of 37%. While people's support for the president is in a free-fall, that does not necessarily equate to a rebuke of his agenda. Instead, it appears to be frustration that he cannot implement his policies even with a supermajority in the Senate.

It is beyond popular comprehension why the Democrats in congress have been unable to pass more of the president's proposals and actually enact the 'change' that Obama ran on. The simple answer is that getting a unanimous decision from a group of Democrats is no easy task.

For one thing, Democrats are not a united party under one central set of policy positions, as the GOP makes every effort to be. Democrats are not forced to vote a certain way or required to believe in specific issues. There is no large media or propaganda tool to foster more unity and homogeneity in the Democrats. While the Republicans effectively create party unity and squash party dissent through talk radio and political pressure, the Democrats do not regularly engage in such behavior.

Democrats, in general, do not believe in ideological purity tests for their candidates or membership. Instead, the Democratic polity is made up of compromise. They compromise because only a coalition of interests can counteract the dangerous and monolithic Republican party. While Harry Reid struggles to get individuals as different as Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Chuck Schumer of New York to agree on the president's policy proposals, Obama is a sitting duck for the GOP criticism which portrays him as a do-little president with no sense of urgency.

If and when the Senate finally finds their compromise and starts passing this legislation, Obama's numbers should rise.