And everyone else, for that matter, but most significantly among its own party members. It's not a trend yet, but it is interesting.
Honestly, I think it stems largely from the GOP presidential primary candidates and their high quantity visibility right now, especially the Donald. A lot of Republicans I know don't see much there that they have any enthusiasm about, as the candidates scramble all over each other to appeal to the furthest nationalist / religious / big business Right parts of the base.
Granted, there's not a lot of enthusiasm for Clinton among the Dems, except as the Anyone Who's Not Republican candidate. Sanders is the most visible candidate going against her, but at the moment they are more about staking their own claim, not in trying to outdo each other in ideological purity or dumping on each other as not being pure enough.
It will be interesting to see how this changes, then, in the coming several months as the candidate pack begins to condense on the GOP side, and Clinton and Sanders begin to seriously run against each other on the Dem side. We're still a year away from the nominating conventions, let alone the elections, which is a lot of time to make any predictions about much of anything.
A few other findings from the poll.
– If Republicans are increasingly down on Republicans, they are also less popular among Democrats and Independents. Meanwhile, the Democratic party is no less (un)favorable among any of those three groups.
– The Democratic Party is seen as governing in a more honest and ethical way, and more concerned about "people like me." The Republian Part is significantly seen as more extreme. Both parties are about even when it comes to who can better manage the federal government.
– The Dems are seen as best able to handle issues about the Environment, Abortion / Contracpetion, Education, and Health Care better. The Republicans are able to handle Gun Control and Terrorism better. The two are pretty close on economic and foreign policy issues.
– The Abortion/ Contraception issue is far stronger for the Dems right now than it was in February; how the current Planned Parenthood "scandal" changes that will be interesting to see. But the Dems have also clawed back a lot on Foreign Poicy, Taxes, even Terrorism since then.
– The GOP and Dems are pretty much neck and neck on Immigration — but that's largely because the GOP largely dominates in this area among White Men (especially non-college graduates), and people over 50.
– Everybody has a negative view of Congress, no matter what their party affiliation.
– Support of how Obama hadles Health Care has increased across the board since last December, even among Republicans, but a thin national majority (driven heavily by Repulicans across the board) think he is not tough enough on foreign policy.
GOP’s Favorability Rating Takes a Negative Turn
Survey Report The Republican Party’s image has grown more negative over the first half of this year. Currently, 32% have a favorable impression of the
