Republicans scared of Occupy Wall Street?

Polls do show that Americans overwhelmingly agree with the Democrats, rather than the Republicans, on the issues, but that's been the case for some time, and often, voters still end up choosing Republican candidates.

Partly, that's because of outright lies. A year ago, Republicans vowed to protect Medicare from the Democrats - an absurd claim if there ever was one - but as soon as they took the House of Representatives, they proposed ending Medicare entirely.

Well, that could only have been a surprise if you weren't paying attention, but that's the case with most Americans these days.

Just because the majority agree with the Democrats on the issues, that's meaningless if they don't know where each political party stands, if they're scared into voting Republican for some other reason, or if they simplistically want to punish incumbents, without actually looking at who's been doing what.

Keep in mind that Republicans got ordinary people to campaign against estate taxes simply by calling them "death taxes" and scaring the ignorant into thinking they had something to fear. If they can do that, they can market anything.

Still, I could use a little good news these days, and if the Republicans are scared, that's worth a little optimism, I guess - especially if it keeps progressives from retreating into despair and apathy.