NOTE: ORIGINALLY MADE BY REDDIT USER, TrumpImpeachedAugust
Republicans capriciously modify their viewpoints and policies depending on what will benefit the Party. They don't care in the slightest about actual policies, or their supposed "principles". They just care what the Party (and particularly Donald Trump) is in favor of at any given moment. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Democrats maintain fairly consistent opinions about policy, regardless of which party favors it, or who is in power.
#The Party of Principles:
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Exhibit 1: Opinion of Syrian airstrikes under Obama vs. Trump. Source Data 1, Source Data 2 and Article for Context
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Exhibit 2: Opinion of the NFL after large amounts of players began kneeling during the anthem to protest racism. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing Morning Consult package)
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Exhibit 3: Opinion of ESPN after they fired a conservative broadcast analyst. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing YouGov’s “BrandIndex” package)
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Exhibit 4: Opinion of Vladimir Putin after Trump began praising Russia during the election. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 5: Opinion of "Obamacare" vs. "Kynect" (Kentucky's implementation of Obamacare). Kentuckians feel differently about the policy depending on the name. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 6: Christians (particularly evangelicals) became monumentally more tolerant of private immoral conduct among politicians once Trump became the GOP nominee. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 7: White Evangelicals cared less about how religious a candidate was once Trump became the GOP nominee. (Same source and article as previous exhibit.)
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Exhibit 8: Republicans were far more likely to embrace a certain policy if they knew Trump was for it—whether the policy was liberal or conservative. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 9: Republicans became far more opposed to gun control when Obama took office. Democrats have remained consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 10: Republicans started to think universities had a negative impact on the country after Trump entered the primary. Democrats remain consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 11: Wisconsin Republicans felt the economy improve by 85 approval points the day Trump was sworn in. Graph also shows some Democratic bias, but not nearly as bad. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 12: Republicans became deeply negative about trade agreements when Trump became the GOP frontrunner. Democrats remain consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 13: 10% fewer Republicans believed the wealthy weren't paying enough in taxes once a billionaire became their president. Democrats remain fairly consistent. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 14: Republicans suddenly feel very comfortable making major purchases now that Trump is president. Democrats don't feel more or less comfortable than before. Article for Context (viewing source data requires purchasing Gallup's Advanced Analytics package)
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Exhibit 15: Democrats have had a consistently improving outlook on the economy, including after Trump's victory. Republicans? A 30-point spike once Trump won. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 16: Shift in opinion of the media's utility for keeping politicians in check. Democrats reacted a bit after Trump took office (+15 points), but Republicans had a 35-point nose dive. Source Data and Article for Context
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Exhibit 17: Republicans had an evenly split opinion in April regarding whether James Comey should be fired. After he was fired, they became overwhelmingly in favor. Source Data 1, Source Data 2 and Article for Context
Donald Trump could go on a stage and start shouting about raising the minimum wage, increasing taxes on the wealthy, allowing more immigrants into the country, and combating climate change. His supporters would cheer and shout, and would all suddenly support liberal policies. It's not a party of principles--it's a party of sheep. And the data suggest that "both sides" aren't the same in this regard. Republicans are significantly more guilty. #Caveats and Considerations:
Yes, the exhibits above paint a one-sided picture. I posit that this is because the reality truly is one-sided. However, there are several things to keep in mind.
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Democrats are not immune to this effect. But the degree to which they display it seems to be significantly less. Several of the exhibits above (e.g. 11, 15, and 16) demonstrate this. Democrats do sometimes react in this manner when their party takes power, but the reaction from Republicans under similar circumstances seems to be notably larger. It would be interesting to do a meta-analysis of these studies and compare the trend of swing among Democrats to the swing among Republicans.
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There were several circumstances under which I omitted graphs from this list. I omitted graphs which were not relevant. I omitted graphs that I could not source. I omitted graphs that did not show either side reacting more strongly than the other side.
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There are indications that certain demographics which tend to lean Democrat had strong negative feelings of health/well-being immediately after the 2016 election. It is very important to note that there was no data collected about party affiliation in this study, and it is only conjecture that the groups discussed are likely to lean left. It is also entirely likely that their change in well-being wasn’t a result of party identity, but broader societal fears regarding discrimination, etc.
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In the course of building this list, I have found only one graph that showed Democrats reacting strongly to their own party gaining power, while Republicans mostly held their ground. Here it is: Democrats developed a more positive outlook on the US succeeding in Iraq after Obama took office. Republicans were comparatively consistent. Source Data. However, this comes with its own caveat: after the 2008 election, many people with strong anti-war convictions stopped identifying with the Democratic party. Source Data.
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To that last point, the biggest potential criticism of the List of Exhibits is that the trends may not be driven by changes of opinion, but by changes in party affiliation. However, if the data in Exhibit 8 are to be trusted, this would seem not to be the case. Instead, the stronger someone identifies with the party, the more likely they are to willingly change their positions to be in line with their leadership. Furthermore, at least regarding data gathered since January 2017, it looks like there’s been little shift in party identity (until October, at least): Page 14 of this Fox poll
