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Intra-party squabbles

By Staff | Feb 17, 2019

In the age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, a 70 percent job-approval rating is difficult for any elected official to attain.

However, a recent survey conducted by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College resulted in such a number for Gov. Chris Sununu. In fact, only one in four respondents reflected disapproval for Sununu’s work.

Sununu, a Republican, is nearly matched in popularity by U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, both D-N.H. Shaheen’s job-approval rating checked in at 60 percent, while Hassan scored a 55 percent favorable number.

These New Hampshire numbers are nearly opposite for President Donald Trump, however. Of the 600 respondents, 303 — or more than half — said they “strongly disapprove” of him.

It is striking, yet not surprising, how popular Sununu is when compared to Trump. The best way we can think of to describe this is that the Republican Party Trump represents consists of far more who drive American-made pickup trucks than it does of those who drive foreign-made luxury cars.

We do not believe it much of a stretch to say Sununu’s Republican Party is just the opposite. This exemplifies the GOP’s cultural divide.

Of course, there are also deep divisions rising to the surface within the Democratic Party. Perhaps the strongest evidence of this is how U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., celebrated when internet retail giant Amazon pulled out of its deal to construct a headquarters in New York City.

This was a deal organized by New York’s Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio. Amazon officials said they were going to hire 25,000 workers at an average annual salary of $150,000 at the planned Long Island City project.

However, the city and state of New York agreed to grant Amazon $3 billion in tax benefits as part of the plan. This angered many in the area, as the optics of giving Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — considered the richest person in the world — a $3 billion tax cut did not sit well with those in the neighborhoods to be impacted by the new headquarters.

“Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after Amazon decided to abandon the project.

The Amazon situation exemplifies the Democrats’ socioeconomic divide.

We are not sure how these intra-party squabbles will impact the 2020 presidential race, but they do indicate the days of politics being as simple as “left versus right” are likely behind us.

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