

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) exits the floor of the Senate after speaking for more than 21 hours in opposition to the Affordable Care Act in Washington last year. (EPA/JIM LO SCALZO)

In the five years since tea party came along, the Republican Party has spent a good amount of time fighting with itself. The Democratic Party, well ... has not. As much as some would love to project the GOP's infighting on to the Democratic presidential primary in 2016, it just isn't happening right now.

Want to know why that is? Well, the below graphic from the Pew Research Center explains it better than just about anything we've seen to date. On four issues -- abortion, illegal immigration, government spending and gay marriage -- there are more Republicans who say their party doesn't do a good job than say it does.

The gap is particularly large on the latter three issues (at least 19 points on each). But even on abortion -- an issue on which the party is basically united -- the unhappiness is evident.

On the flip side is the Democratic Party. On all four of the very same issues, more Democrats approve of their party than disapprove. And on gay marriage and abortion, they are overwhelmingly happy -- with the "good jobs" outnumbering the "not a good jobs" more than two-to-one.

For the GOP, the good job/bad job split averages a negative 37.5-53.5. For Democrats, it's basically the inverse, 55-36 positive.

These are not all of the important issues, of course. But they cut a good-sized swath of economic and social issues, along with immigration. And the universality of the GOP's unhappiness with itself is no illusion.

Update 12:19 p.m.: Some have asked whether the GOP unrest is coming more from the right or the middle. Pew just released more data suggesting it's both equally. More than half of both moderate/liberal Republicans (55 percent) and conservative Republicans (52 percent) disapprove of the GOP on gay marriage, and the same is true on immigration (both at 56 percent) and spending (both about 60 percent). On abortion, conservatives are slightly less unhappy (43 percent) than moderates/liberals (51 percent).

Polls have been showing this for a long time. Just a couple weeks back, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed just 34 percent of Republicans approved of their congressional contingent. Among Democrats, it was 63 percent. The difference basically accounts for the difference in the two parties' overall approval ratings.

It also accounts for why the GOP sees its incumbents ceding so much of the vote -- though not really losing this year -- in their primary campaigns. And also, why the GOP presidential primary in 2016 will be so unpredictable.