Slate has another article on the alleged paradox that Republicans are doing well in the elections even though their party has a lower approval rating than the main competition. Isn’t this pattern easily explained? If people who disapprove of both parties dislike the Democrats more (at least for now), then you could see a pro-Republican voting trend even with a low party-approval number. Looking at it the other way around, it seems pretty likely that a higher proportion of Republican voters than of Democratic voters dislike the party they’re voting for. It’s not as though the phenomenon of conservative voters who dislike the GOP but are really hostile to the Democrats has been undercovered in this cycle. Isn’t that what pretty much every article on the tea parties has talked about?