The congressional Republicans want Americans to think their fight with President Obama and the Democrats is over policy. While that may have been true in the past, it no longer is. A perfect example is the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which they are currently labeling as some kind of evil socialist program that will destroy America. The truth is that this health care reform law was actually a Republican idea (created by Senate Republicans as a counter to health care reform proposed by Democrats during the Clinton administration). It only became "evil" after being accepted by President Obama.The truth is that the congressional Republicans haven't operated on a policy basis since the election of President Obama. When the president was elected in 2008, they met and decided to oppose everything the president proposed (even if it was one of their own ideas, like the ACA). They now only operate on a political partisanship basis, where all of their actions are determined by opposing whatever the president wants to do. And that partisanship requires they not compromise on anything.
Fortunately the American public is finally figuring this out. They know the Republicans are operating out of pure political partisanship with no effort to compromise for the good of the country -- and they don't like it. Americans want both parties to compromise, and get the economy moving again (as both parties have done in the past). The teabaggers in the GOP base may love this "hate on Obama" strategy, but most Americans don't -- and this could bite the Republican Party in the next election.
The chart above reflects information from a recent Rasmussen Poll (conducted on October 14th and 15th of 1,000 likely voters, with a margin of error of 3 points).
