Being that there are several million people out of work losing their homes/cars.?

WOAH 50%??! Is the other 50% liberal? Looks like they are really kicking themselves!

First off, where did you procure this "50%"? You can't just say probably in circumstances like these.

Remember that the politicians in office got in because people actually voted for them. Many people only want unemployment benefits to go for a certain amount of time because the benefits are paid for through taxes, and to encourage people to be out there searching for jobs.

You should also consider that democrats tend to want to give out all of these benefits more, so those who want those benefits would be more likely to vote democrat anyways (so, the majority are probably democrat).

That could affect some people, but the major issues for the 2012 election are going to have to do with government spending, our national debt, and corruption.

We're spending a lot on things that aren't really that important last year (like the 700million dollars on horse contraceptives...), and with a 14 trillion dollars debt to foreign nations, money is a big issue. If our economy doesn't improve be an amount that everyone can easily see, then that could be an issue as well. If it doesn't improve, then Republicans could claim that Obama's tactics didn't work; if they do, Democrats could claim that the tactics would work and that we need to continue using them.

Party allegiance will most likely continue to be a big thing. Most people (Republican, Democrat, and all others) don't understand the issues at hand as well as they should. So, if you don't understand what is really go along, you are probably going to vote with someone you trust (i.e. your party).

Republicans, even unemployed ones, do not want more government spending. They are not "throwing their own under the bus," they are voting as their constituents would want them to.

Their constituents are smart enough to understand that if the left was willing to cut business taxes and not force businesses to pay for health insurance for all employees, the businesses would start hiring again.

Because Republicans have voted to restrain spending, as their constituents want, they are garnering allegiance rather than eroding it.