This is almost 13 months of net favorability ratings for both the Republican and Democratic parties, from our weekly state of the nation poll:
There are two early bumps. The first was the inauguration. The second was the passage of the stimulus bill. Voters liked success! That entire time, Republicans looked like shit and plummeted southward.
Then the Democrats stopped delivering victories, and in August, the teabaggers gave the GOP a new lease on life. And they've been trending upward ever since. At this point, they'll cross over the Democratic Party's trendlines and be the less unpopular party. Indeed, that crossover has already happened with our generic congressional ballot question:
While voters still don't like the GOP -- it's a party that refuses to govern, after all -- they've realized that the Democratic Party is incapable of governing. And how could it, when it rewards its most disloyal members with big fat checks? And hence the party is punished.
It took all of last year to get into these dire straits. We still have 10 months to turn things around. But that would require victories, and with our broken Senate, I'm afraid to hope for the best.