Poll Finds Rising Cynicism Eroding 2 Parties’ Support : Politics: Times Mirror survey indicates it is more difficult for Democrats or GOP to win a majority.

As Americans confront the final decade of the 20th Century, antipathy toward their political system is on the rise, making it increasingly difficult for either political party to muster a governing majority.

That is the central finding of a new Times Mirror survey of political loyalties and beliefs. The poll results indicate that both parties are close to parity, with only 5% more people identifying themselves as Democrats than the number who say they are Republicans. But the category “none-of-the above” is well out in front of both major parties.

Cynicism and mistrust toward public officials is also demonstrated by the 30% who “completely agree” with the statement that “elected officials in Washington lose touch with the people pretty quickly.”

On the international scene, the poll found that fear of communism has declined sharply with the end of the Cold War. On the other hand, negative feelings have increased toward Japan, in large part because of its success as an economic rival. And Israel has plunged even further in public esteem in the wake of the Intifada disturbances on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Underlying the negativism at home is growing unease about the economy--55% of those surveyed think that the country is in a recession--which is feeding voter cynicism toward both parties in anticipation of harder times to come. These bleak feelings are concentrated among Americans earning less than $50,000 annually, who make up 85% of the voting age population.

Only 18% of Americans think that the nation’s economy will be in better shape a year from now, while 31% think it will be worse.

Thirty-six percent think that hard work offers little guarantee of success, compared with 29% in 1987. And 38% think it is generally true that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, compared with 31% in 1987.

A majority--57%--say that people like themselves have no say in government, compared with 52% in 1987.

These results were drawn from 3,000 personal interviews conducted last May across the nation--two or three times the sample size of most national surveys. Some 1,000 respondents were interviewed a second time over the phone last month, after the Middle East crisis erupted.

The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2 percentage points for the original survey. In the followup phone survey, the error margin was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The large size of the initial sample and the reliance on face-to-face interviews rather than telephone questioning makes possible a detailed analysis of the electorate, in which voters were divided into 11 groups based on their values and historical voting patterns.

Democrats got a large dose of bad news in the poll. Though they continue to hold a lead over Republicans, that advantage is shrinking. Among those interviewed, 33% now call themselves Democrats, 28% say they are Republicans and 39% are independent or uncommitted.

That represents a drop of 4% for Democrats and a jump of 3% for Republicans since 1987, when Times Mirror conducted its first such study.

Times Mirror Co. owns the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, broadcasting and publishing enterprises.

The Democrats also suffered defections after their 1980 and 1984 presidential defeats. But darkening the outlook further for them now is evidence that their party has been losing ground among two of its core constituencies--working class voters with ties to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and low-income citizens traditionally supportive of the Democrats’ activist approach to government.

But the results gave the GOP little to cheer about, except for the continued popularity of President Bush, whose approval rating soared to 76% in August, up from 64% in May. Not only were the Republican gains meager, but the party appeared to suffer a setback in its long struggle to erase the perception that it is a tool of the wealthy and privileged--an image dating back to the Great Depression.

Asked “what does it mean to be a Republican,” 51% of those interviewed volunteered the terms “rich, powerful, monied interest,” compared with 18% in 1987. And 28% described the Republicans as “not being for the people,” compared with only 5% three years ago.

“We have always had the image of being the party of the rich,” said Charles Black, spokesman for the Republican National Committee during the illness of its chairman, Lee Atwater.

Black said that he had believed the perception was improved by economic growth during the Ronald Reagan era. “But lately the attacks on us because of the savings and loan problem and the Democratic rhetoric about our taxing the poor more than the rich may have kept the pressure on.”

Nevertheless, Black maintained, “we think the long-range trend for us is still up.”

The Democrats’ problems seem more complex. On the plus side, the party outscores the GOP by a 2-to-1 margin when voters are asked the critical question of which party is “most concerned with the needs of people like me.”

And by a margin of 40% to 24%, voters think Democrats do a better job of protecting the environment than Republicans. And 40% say that Democrats are closer to their views on abortion, compared to 30% who think Republicans more closely reflect their views.

But Democrats come out behind Republicans by 10 points or more on such key issues as handling of defense spending, generating economic growth and making America competitive. And since 1987 they have lost support in nearly every demographic group in the country with their heaviest losses coming in the East, among very young people, older people, poor people, white Catholics and union members.

Democratic National Chairman Ron Brown blames his party’s difficulties in part on the antigovernment attitudes fostered by the Reagan era. “What happened was that we had a decade of cynicism and greed, and Reagan beat up on government,” he said. “We have to revive the notion that government and the private sector can work together to solve the country’s problems.”

So far as the American view of the world is concerned, the most dramatic change is the decline of the ratio of Americans who believe that there is an international communist conspiracy to rule the world--60% in 1987 compared with 37% in 1990.

Despite the easing of Cold War tensions, support for defense spending is still strong. In May of 1990, 58% favored either keeping defense spending at present levels or increasing it. And in August, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, that figure increased to 66%. The percentage favoring a cut dropped to 31% from 40%.

Meanwhile, in a sign that the public is feeling hard pressed economically, fear of the communist menace appears on its way to being supplanted by resentment against the aggressively competitive Japanese.

Japan now gets an unfavorable rating of 39%, compared to 27% in 1987. Israel has dropped even faster in public esteem. In 1987, 27% of Americans saw Israel in an unfavorable light, while 65% viewed the nation favorably. Now the split is nearly even: 45% unfavorable, and 44% favorable.

PUT OFF BY POLITICS Percentages of those polled who completely agreed with this statement:

“Generally speaking, elected officials in Washington lose touch with the people pretty quickly.”

1987 1990 SEX Male 24% 32% Female 21 29 AGE 18-24 19 32 25-29 20 26 30-39 22 28 40-49 24 31 50-59 21 32 60 and over 24 33 FAMILY INCOME under $20,000 27 35 $20,000-29,999 22 30 $30,000-39,999 19 34 $40,000-49,999 17 30 $50,000 and over 14 18