A Radicalized GOP Might Take Over Our Government: Do Voters Realize What's at Stake?

By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
Posted on July 4, 2010, Printed on July 5, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/147423/

Evidence of an "enthusiasm gap" between Democratic and Republican voters is hardly new, though it may prove to be one of the year's most important campaign dynamics. Recently, the trend became even more evident.

Gallup's latest poll measuring partisan enthusiasm not only showed Republicans with a sizable advantage, but found that excitement among GOP voters has reached a level with no modern precedent.

This week's report from the Pew Research Center found a similar partisan landscape: "Fully 56 percent of Republican voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting this year than in previous elections -- the highest percentage of GOP voters expressing increased enthusiasm about voting in midterms dating back to 1994.... The Republican Party now holds about the same advantage in enthusiasm among its party's voters that the Democratic Party held in June 2006 and the GOP had late in the 1994 campaign."