By any measure, the GOP cannot claim a strong mandate for the extremist agenda they are trying to foist on America. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.8 million. The only way that the GOP has a majority in the House is by a gerrymandering scheme so abusive that, despite Hillary's commanding popular vote win, she carried only 205 House districts to Trump's 230.
And the Senate composition indicates no strong mandate, either. If one assigns state population to the party of their Senators (and splits the state population for split-party states), Democratic Senators represent a huge 178.3 million people, or 55.3% of Americans. Despite this big majority, the Democratic Caucus only constitutes 48% of the Senate.
In contrast, the 52 Senate Republicans represent only 144.1 million people, or 44.7% of Americans. However, they claim a Senate majority, largely due to GOP strength in many of our least populous states.
OK, so the Republicans represent only a minority of Americans. How are they governing? Are they listening to the people? Does their agenda at least reflect the wishes of the majority?
Few issues divide the two parties more than the Right to Choose. For years, radical Republican men have ignored the people to wage their War on Women. The unpopularity of their stance is illustrated by a January Quinnipiac poll which asked: "If you knew that federal government funding to Planned Parenthood was being used only for non-abortion health issues such as breast cancer screening, would you still favor cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood?" The public opposes a funding cut by an overwhelming 80% to 12% margin.
In the same poll, Americans support the Roe v. Wade decision by 70% to 26%. Republicans can hardly say they have a mandate to legislate governmental control of reproduction.
How about other issues? Most Democratic office holders are against the Citizens United decision which exposed our elections to unlimited, anonymous, and uncontrolled dark money. Republicans usually support Citizens United and frequently block legislative attempts to limit the worst abuses. In a September 2015 Bloomburg poll, Americans think that Citizens United should be overturned by a lopsided 87-17% margin.
How do Americans feel about Medicare and Social Security? Congressional Republicans (led by Paul Ryan) are determined to change Medicare into a scheme in which seniors would receive a premium support (discount coupons) to buy private health insurance. The most recent poll on this idea was conducted by Kaiser in 2014. Paul Ryan's plot is pretty unpopular, supported by only 26% of respondents. In contrast, 66% of the public thinks that we should keep the current Medicare system.
And Social Security is just as popular as Medicare. While the GOP wants to cut benefits and raise the retirement age, Democrats want to defend and strengthen the program. A 2014 Pew Research poll reports that 67% of Americans want no cuts to Social Security. Only 31% feel that some future cuts will be needed.
Climate change denial is almost a requirement for a Republican office holder. Trump's cabinet and Congress are well-stocked with anti-science hacks who do not believe that the earth is warming and actively fight efforts to fix the problem. Yet, according to a 2016 Gallup poll, fully 65% of Americans agree with the science that global warming is caused by human activities.
And Trump's useless and expensive border wall? It is not supported by Americans, either. A September CNN poll found that 58% of Americans oppose building the wall vs 41% who actually want it.
Due to an unfortunate convergence of electoral law vagaries and aggressive gerrymandering, the GOP has found itself with a solid grip on the US government. They achieved this power without the support of a majority of voters. However, Washington GOP politicians are acting as though they have a huge mandate to impose radical change. But on issue after issue, Republicans are out-of-sync with the rest of the country. They are truly a minority party pushing a minority agenda on the rest of us.
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