Back in August of 2010, Americans had a different view of Republicans than they do now. While 40% of them considered the Republican Party to be extremist, about 45% considered them to be a mainstream party. But in the 2010 election the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives, and their extremist policies came to light as they obstructed efforts to create jobs and fix the economy, tried to eliminate Medicare, cut help for children and the poor while fighting for more giveaways to the rich, and attempted numerous times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.Since then, the number who view Republicans has climbed by 10 points and the number who viewed them as mainstream has dropped by 12 points. Currently half of all Americans view the Republican Party as an extremist party, and only 33% now consider them to be a mainstream party.
During this same time period, the number thinking the Democrats were extremist has dropped by 11 points and those considering Democrats as mainstream has risen by 4 points.
These numbers are from a new Rasmussen Poll (conducted on October 2nd and 3rd of 1,000 nationwide Likely Voters, with a 3 point margin of error).
