Chris Bowers found some interesting results in the latest Zogby poll yesterday. The poll is titled a Report Card On Prejudice In America and judges not only people's own prejudices but also their impression of the prejudices of their fellow Americans. One of the hilarious conclusions of the poll:

[Respondents] think most Americans believe...Republicans are most responsible for many of the world's ills.

The breakdown of the ills and the extent to which people believe Americans hold the different parties accountable for them are as follows:

War: 62% blamed Republicans vs. 14% Democrats
Global Warming: 56% blamed Republicans vs. 10% Democrats
Prejudice: 52% blamed Republicans vs. 22% for Democrats
Poverty: 49% held Republicans accountable; 29% Democrats
Corruption: 47% blamed Republicans vs. 31% Democrats
Crime: On this issue, respondents reversed the trend, with 42% blaming Democrats vs. 23% Republicans

I doubt we can draw from this that people actually blame the Republican Party for problems such as global warming and prejudice (although some might beg to differ) but rather I think it reflects people's general sense that the Democratic Party represents the solution to the biggest crises facing our country and the Republican Party, part of the problem.  

This finding is echoed in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, which finds:

when it comes to judging the president versus congressional Democrats on the issue of Iraq, the public stands with Congress. Fifty-five percent said they trust congressional Democrats on the war, compared with 32 percent who said they trust Bush. (Eleven percent of all respondents and 17 percent of independents said they trust "neither.")

This in a poll in which congressional Democrats get just 35% approval on Iraq. As with most polls, this one reveals great disappointment with the Democrats but relative to Bush and the Republicans, it's no contest.

Which brings me to a larger question: does this sound like an electorate clamoring for bi-partisanship? If anything, these results show a decided partisan bias and would certainly contradict those that have for months maintained that November's election was a vote not for Democrats but for bi-partisanship. Well, people may want the partisan bickering to stop but it's not because they want Democrats to work WITH Republicans. They've seen what that's gotten us. No, these results point to an electorate that wants Republicans out of the way. Or as Bowers says:

Bush has destroyed the Republican brand, and so we are going to win a lot of elections in the next few years. As such, progressives have to start thinking a lot more about how Democrats can govern in a progressive fashion, and work to make that happen. The short-term crisis of stopping conservative Republican governance has already been partially averted, and will soon be averted entirely. Progressive focus needs to turn towards governance.