“Swamp Drainage” has long been one of President Donald Trump's signature slogans. However, it is not clear that rhetoric will lead to popular policy as billionaire Elon Musk coordinates large-scale layoffs for federal workers.
At City Halls from Missouri to Georgia and Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers have shown they will protest aggressive efforts to reduce masks and government spending. More than 20,000 workers have been fired so far, and the approximately 1 million people living in the state Trump won in 2024 could ultimately be affected.
That raises the question: Will Doge's cut hurt Republicans in the long run?
At least a few GOP lawmakers seem worried they will do so. Some people, including Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), have publicly urged Musk to take a kinder approach than coercive or demanding more transparency. It's there.
“The problem is, is we giving people time to adapt to their lives? That's my biggest concern. We're compassionate,” McCormick told Atlanta. He spoke to NBC News amid concerns about layoffs at its headquarters Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But Republicans like McCormick remain in the minority, and Trump continues to give masks thumbs up. Masks also seemingly merciless, telling federal workers who recently ignored their first email asking for a summary of their recent activities will be given the opportunity to reply to them for the last time. If they did not respond, he said, they put the end in jeopardy.
Meanwhile, many democratic strategists hope that early frustration with Doge will grow, and their party hopes that they can exploit the anger over government cuts during the middle of next year I'm here.
Longtime Democratic strategist James Kerrville told News Nation earlier this week. He said he considers Mask's tactics at Doge “more than Barack Obama, the biggest generator of democratic voter turnout than ever.” Also in operation by the New York Times on Tuesday, Kerrville suggested that early indicators could be the governor's race in Virginia in November.
Based on the vote, Democrats' assessment of Doge as a deep unpopular voter, but its aggressive cuts have sparked opposition among Republicans as recent City Hall suggests. Not there. And that means it may be too early for Democrats to resort to Doge to lead a big victory for them.
Polls show a crack in Doge's strategy
Several recent referendums have shown that Musk is a widespread violation of the (obviously informal) leader of Doge, but there appears to be a severe disparity between Democrats and Republicans. is.
In the post-Washington poll from February 13th to 18th, 49% of Americans disapproved of mask job performance, including 85% of registered Democrats, but only 15% of registered Republicans. I understand that. More than half of Americans, 90% of Democrats and just over 18% of Republicans said they disapproved of Musk's efforts to shut down government programs he deemed unnecessary.
Opposing Musk's team, gaining access to a sensitive government database that stores the personal information of millions of Americans, appeared slightly bipartisan. 92% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans said they were “worried” about it.
Another mid-February poll at Kinnipiac University found that 55% of Americans think Musk is too much decision-making power in the federal government, including 96% of Democrats and 16% of Republicans. I did.
These results coincided with other February polls at the Pew Research Center and Emerson College, showing that Americans disapproved Musk than they approved him. Both polls reflect partisan divisions.
Democrats are clearly in large part unified against Musk, and the party may be able to use that disapproval to make a comeback in the medium term. But their path to power is not wide open. For now, at least, it's clear that Republicans prefer masks to wear, and GOP doesn't seem to autoinflam the wounds. The question is whether it will change, especially if government layoffs affect the livelihoods of Republican voters.
