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Yes, most Republicans and Democrats have different ideas about the pandemic and how the country should move forward. But there appear to be cracks in the GOP wall. There was a sizable minority of Republicans on the opposite side of the majority of their party on most questions. Not so among Democrats. Despite all the recent attention given to the ideological skirmishing in the Democratic Party during this years presidential primary, the Democrats in this survey were more unified than the Republicans.

These findings reflect a GOP fissureshowing up nationally as well. There is Rep. Peter King, R-New York, calling Mitch McConnell Marie Antoinette for the Senate majority leader's stance on the relief package. Some Republican governors have defied and criticizedPresident Trump, and vice versa. And then there are the stay-at-home protests, which are reportedly raising the hackles of some Republican leaders.

More on the poll:Most WA voters wary of reopening economy too soon

There were significant differences between Democrats and Republicans in response to 11 of the 14 policy questions in last weeks poll. Often, the partisan differences were more of degree than direction. For example, majorities in both parties agreed that the restrictions ordered by state government have worked to control the spread of the virus (93% of Democrats; 52% of Republicans)

They also agreed that the next congressional relief package should give high priority to individuals who lost jobs or work income (93% of Democrats; 80% of Republicans), as well as tohealth care systems and facilities (95% of Democrats; 72% of Republicans).

The partisan divide shows up in thinking about next steps. The most significant difference between partisans in this survey was over the risk to the country: 82% of Democrats said the greater risk was to public health by lifting restrictions too soon, while 64% of Republicans said the greater risk was to the economy by keeping restrictions on too long.

But while there was plenty of disagreement between Democrats and Republican in the survey, there was ample evidence of dissent among Republicans when comparing the results withthe actions of the partys leaders:

Granted, those are not big numbers. Overall, they represent a minority within a minority. Even so, it is politically significant that a quarter to a third of the Republican rank and file in this state disagreeswith party orthodoxy. There was no such dissent among Democrats. The highest level of Democrats opposing the majority in their party on these questions was 12%.

Nationally, the GOP is Trumps party. The glory days of socially and environmentally progressive, fiscally pragmatic Dan Evans Republicans are long gone. But there are still people among us who consider themselves Republicans who are not onboard with Trump. Are they an endangered species on the verge of extinction? Are they keeping the embers alive for a resurgence of a more moderate Republican party? Are they potential partners with centrist Democrats in some new political force?

Time will tell. As the coronavirus pandemic reshapes our society, it will undoubtedly reshape our politics as well.

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COVID-19 exposes a rift in the Republican Party - Crosscut

MADISON (WKOW) -- The leaders of the Wisconsin State Assembly late Friday sent Gov. Tony Evers a letter requesting a meeting to discuss a unified, bipartisan approach to the states coronavirus pandemic response.

The letter comes as the stateSupreme Court has scheduled oral argumentson Legislative Republicans' lawsuit to overturn Safer at Home.

In these times of crisis, we understand how difficult decisions like these are -- but we are all in this together. Thats why it is our hope that we can begin direct conversations with you as soon as possible, the leaders stated in their letter.

Assembly Republicans are looking to discuss reopening Wisconsins economy in a safe, targeted and regional way, according to a news release from Speaker Robin Vos's office.

This request follows a roughly seven hour informational meeting held by the Assembly Committee on State Affairs, chaired by Rep. Rob Swearingen (R-Rhinelander).

The hearing provided an opportunity for lawmakers and the public to hear from small business owners and industry leaders about how the Safer at Home order is impacting their lives and livelihoods.

The committee also explored safe reopening options including theBack to Business plan from the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.As a part of their letter, the leaders provided a summary of the hearing to the governor to help provide a foundation for future discussions.

The GOP leaders of the Assembly are requesting to meet with the governor early next week.

We look forward to working with you, your administration, health experts and business leaders to help make a better tomorrow for all of Wisconsin, the leaders stated.

READ MORE

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Assembly Republicans seek meeting with Evers over pandemic response - WXOW.com

Opinion: I have no problem with anyone expressing anger and frustration over COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Gov. Doug Ducey. But not in a way that is rude, self-centered and insensitive to the dead.

Protesters at the Arizona State Capitol(Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

The members of the Republican Party of Arizona, Legislative District 11, wanted to express their anger and frustration over Gov. Doug Duceys decision to extend his stay-at-home order, and especially with the warning he issued to those who might ignore it.

Ducey said, This is an order that is enforceable by law, a violation is a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail. And for those that own an establishment and are publicly going to flout the order, you are playing with your liquor license. Don't do that.

The chairman of the District 11 Republicans, Bill Maynard, said in a statement that America has been reduced to a police state.

So the District 11 folks drafted a resolution to urge the Legislature to overturn Duceys order.

The resolution passed on a vote of 60-0.

I have no problem with the District 11 Republicans going public with their desire to reopen the state.

I have no problem with their concern for struggling businesses and out-of-work citizens.

I have no problem with them being angry and frustrated.

I draw the line, however, at also being insensitive, rude, self-centered and ignorant.

In a statement released with their resolution, Chairman Bill Maynard said the restrictions imposed by Ducey and other governors are due to a gross over reaction and hype of the Wuhan Virus.

Overreaction?

Hype?

There are more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. with upwards of 62,000 deaths, with no end in sight.

There are nearly 8,400cases in Arizona and approaching350 deaths.

Id guess that no one who has lost a mother or father, a brother or sister, a friend, a grandparent anyone would describe what is going on as hype.

The Third Vice Chairman of the District 11 Republicans, Anna Clark, said in a statement, We are fed up with not being able to go to work and live our lives as we see fit.

Obviously, the District 11 Republicans have no desire to make any sacrifices for fellow citizens who many suffer or die from the virus.

They have a right to publicly announce their selfishness.

Within the resolution itself the District 11 Republicans also say, COVID-19 poses little or no risk to the general population and only to a narrow spectrum.

While it is true that older people and individuals with compromised immune systems are the most vulnerable, individuals of all ages have died from COVID-19. A 6-week-old newborn in Connecticut, high school and college students, otherwise healthy young and middle-aged adults. Not to mention the health care professionals and essential workers who have been lost to COVID-19. To suggest there is "little or no risk" diminishes those deaths. Those lives.

If you are angry and frustrated, like the District 11 Republicans, and you want the state to end restrictions meant to serve the greater good, to save lives, you are perfectly free to say so.

But in doing so, please, muster up a little grace.

Convey a little empathy.

Show a little respect for the dead. And for their families.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2020/05/02/arizonas-district-11-republicans-vote-60-0-they-dopes/3072808001/

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Arizonas District 11 Republicans vote 60-0 that they are dopes - AZCentral

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio -- Ive decided its time to make a confession thats way overdue: I used to be a hippie.

Actually, I didnt consider myself a hippie, but society branded me as one because I had long hair, a beard and wore bell-bottom jeans. We were called the counterculture back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The reason I bring it up now, the 50th anniversary of the protests and shootings at Kent State University, is that the world has gone topsy-turvy. If a college student wants to be a member of the counterculture today, they should join their local Republican Party club.

You think Im crazy, right? Please hear me out.

Let me take you back to 1968 at Kent State, my alma mater. I was fortunate to receive a journalism scholarship to attend there. So, as such, I was given a personal meeting with the head of the journalism department. As we talked in his office, I noticed a handful of students outside his window carrying signs protesting the Vietnam War. I asked him what that was about. He told me not to pay them any attention. They were just communist troublemakers.

Sadly, it was near that very spot two years later, on May 4, 1970, that the Ohio National Guard acted out our nations hatred of the counterculture by killing four student protesters. Many Kent city residents said, They should have killed more of them.

Back then, the people running our colleges and other institutions were mostly World War II vets like my dad. They thought that we hippies were traitors because we were against the Vietnam War, probably the worst foreign policy mistake in American history. We called them the establishment.

Which brings me to today. Today, many establishment types in academia and the media call us conservative Republicans fascists because we believe the United States is the richest, freest, greatest country on the planet. This got me thinking about how Republicans today are treated like the counterculture used to be.

For example, way back on Nov. 2, 2006, long before Donald Trump was elected president, I read a Plain Dealer story describing some students at Oberlin College who were restarting a Republican Club that had been dormant for decades. When they tried to put up flyers publicizing a visit by conservative speaker Patrick Michaels, the fliers were covered up and defaced. (The article so upset me that I went and talked to the students, but thats another story.)

When William Kristol, another conservative speaker, was invited to lecture, his posters were even torn in half. Jonathan Bruno, the Oberlin College Republicans (CRs) president, was outraged. Radical students constantly denounce CRs lecturers as fascists, but we hear none of these detractors speaking out against this shameful vandalism, which itself smacks of fascist totalitarianism, he said in their newsletter.

To be fair, both speakers visits went off uneventfully. But I dont like being called a fascist, since my father almost died in World War II fighting the real fascists in Nazi Germany.

Fast forward to 2020 and not much has changed on college campuses. You would think that, after 62 million of us fascists voted for Donald Trump in 2016, the college crowd would cut us some slack. No such luck. They seem to have forgotten their hippie roots.

So if you want to see what it was like to be a hippie in the 1960s, try walking across any college campus in America today wearing a red MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat. See how far you get without being harassed. Maybe it would help if you put on a pair of bell-bottom jeans.

Peter Jedick is the author of HIPPIES, a novel set on Kent States campus surrounding the May 4 tragedy.

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Fifty years after Kent State, conservative Republicans are the new counterculture on campus: Peter Jedick - cleveland.com

The coronavirus pandemic has raised a host of new questions about the 2020 election. What will the economy look like in November? How do voters think President Trump is handling the crisis? How will Americans physically cast their votes? And could the current moment be so extraordinary that it outweighs partisanship and causes Republican voters to abandon Trump in November?

For the last question, at least, we can look to history for some clues. The 2008 election isnt exactly parallel to our current situation, but there were some similarities. Back then, an unpopular Republican president, George W. Bush, sat in the White House amid an economic disaster, though he wasnt running for reelection. But the environment that GOP nominee Sen. John McCain was running in may be not unlike the one Trump faces in 2020. (One important caveat: When McCain ran, the GOP had already held the presidency for two terms, and historically, its rare for the same party to win three times in a row. Conversely, its very common for incumbent presidents like Trump to win a second term.)

The 2008 election resulted in a Democratic landslide, as then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated McCain by about 7 percentage points in the national popular vote. Considering how polarized our politics are, this was a large victory by modern standards, as the chart below shows.

Democrats didnt just take the White House either. They also made huge gains in the Senate and House of Representatives, adding to their majorities in both chambers.

But Democrats didnt win because Republicans were fleeing the party or voting for the Democrat en masse McCain still won support from most Republicans who turned out that year. The 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a massive survey that asks Americans about their politics and voting habits, found that McCain won 95 percent of self-identified Republicans who voted, as well as 90 percent of independents who leaned Republican. Similarly, Obama won the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (92 and 93 percent). This partisan split is in line with results from other recent presidential elections, too.

The difference in 2008 was the makeup of the electorate: 51 percent of voters identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents while 41 percent identified as Republicans or Republican-leaning, according to CCES data.

Some of this was because Democratic identification more or less peaked in 2008 while Republican identification was at a low point. Democrats also saw strong turnout from Democratic-leaning demographic groups like African Americans, who showed up in historic numbers to vote for Americas first black president. And getting those partisans to the ballot box was vital to Obamas victory, as he actually lost among pure independents, or those who didnt lean toward either party, by 11 percentage points. Fortunately, for Obama, true independents only made up about 7 percent of the total electorate.

Of course, we dont know how many votes McCain might have lost because people abandoned the GOP before the election or because some Republicans simply didnt show up to vote. Corwin Smidt, a political scientist at Michigan State University, told me that its likely that some people switched parties because of the financial crisis or the Iraq War, but he said it was probably a fairly small share of the electorate. One study estimated that Obama may have won 15 percent of voters who said they backed George W. Bush in 2004.

Smidt told me he thought we could see some people switch parties here in 2020, though, with some Republicans leaving the party because of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus. In fact, there is some evidence that a small share of voters have already shifted parties during the Trump presidency. In 2017, the Pew Research Center found that roughly one-tenth of Democrats and Republicans (including those who leaned toward one party) defected to the other party over the course of the 2016 campaign and in the early days of Trumps presidency. But Smidt cautioned that were still likely only talking about a small slice of the electorate who might switch parties in 2020 because Trump is so polarizing and there is such a gulf between Democrats and Republicans on most political issues. If party differences are clear, people are less likely to switch, said Smidt. And right now, he says, It is hard for people to switch.

Studies have shown that partisans are more likely to stick with their party now than they were just a few years ago, and people feel more negatively than ever toward members of the other party. Surveys also suggest that the overall share of people who identify with or lean toward each party has been relatively stable. So that means Trumps intraparty support may be just as strong as McCains was in 2008. His approval rating has been remarkably steady, and hes enjoyed very strong Republican backing throughout his presidency, with as many as 91 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Republican leaners approving of his job performance before the 2018 midterm elections, according to CCES data for registered voters.

Theres little sign that Republicans are backing away from Trump either. A late March poll from Pew found that, among registered voters, 92 percent of Republicans approved of Trump, as did 79 percent of independents who leaned Republican. While the approval among leaners may seem low compared to the 2018 CCES data, it was actually similar to previous Pew polls that found 70 to 75 percent of Republican leaners approved of Trump.

So just like McCain in 2008, Trump likely still has very strong backing from Republicans that will almost certainly hold up even if things go poorly for him in the coming months. What we cant know, of course, is just how much a bad economy might move people away from the GOP before the election, or how many partisans might simply stay home.

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Could The Coronavirus And Economic Crash Make Republicans Abandon Trump? - FiveThirtyEight