March 26th, 2007

This article outlines the fairly dramatic shift in political thinking over the past 4 years. It’s pretty wild to see how sharp the decline in Republican allegiance has been since 2002. However, it’s not all that difficult to see why there has been a dropoff - which honestly, I think has gone a lot farther towards getting people to identify as Democrats than any agendas they are actually pushing. I feel any liberal movement in the next few years (while welcome) are really just a reaction to the blunders of the current administration.

Since 2002, when the nation was evenly split 43% Democrat and 43% Republican, we now see Democrats enjoying a 50% share of people either registered as or ‘leaning’ towards that party’s ideals. Only 35% of the country now says they are a Republican. That’s a pretty big swing for such a short time.

Unless the Republicans really make a move towards the center and essentially abandon their base of fanatical Conservative supporters, I don’t think they’re going to fare very well in local, state, or national elections outside of their traditional bases. I can’t remember a time when there have been such an abundance of viable Democratic candidates for president, and so few from the Republican camp. The next few months should be interesting.

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6 Responses to “Swing.”

1. eNel says:
   March 27th, 2007 at 8:26 am

   Yay for “Universal Healthcare”!
2. Daniel says:
   March 27th, 2007 at 11:32 am

   Neocon!
3. eNel says:
   March 27th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

   I’m more of a NeoDon’tGiveAShAt
4. Ian Adams says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

   I think has gone a lot farther towards getting people to identify as Democrats than any agendas they are actually pushing.

   Well, I know I don’t have a complete data set to work with (I’m only 27) but it seems like that’s the way that politics in the US goes. Think about it: Reagan was largely a reaction to Carter, Clinton was pretty much a reaction to 12 years of Reagan/Bush, and my hypothesis is that the neocon movement got a lot of momentum at the beginning of the decade as a reaction to Clinton. Maybe it’s just something that happens when you have a two-party system like the US does, but it does definitely seem like the overriding political opinion in the country seems to go back and forth like a pendulum, always reacting to one extreme or the other. (Although I think Clinton was more of a moderate than a far left liberal, but you get the point.)

   Anyway, feel free to take that with a grain of salt; it’s just something I’ve observed in my short time so far on this planet.
5. Ian Adams says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

   heh, I misquoted my blockquote. It was supposed to be:

   I feel any liberal movement in the next few years (while welcome) are really just a reaction to the blunders of the current administration.
6. Daniel says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 12:59 pm

   Haha!

   In any event, you’re right. People have a tendency to overreact, and more importantly, since our choices are essentially limited to ‘binary’ ones in national elections, we’re kind of stuck with this cyclical swing back and forth. As soon as one party consolidates power, they start to abuse it. People get tired of the one party running the show, blame them for everything going wrong in the world today, and figure ‘any change is good change’.

   Enter the opposing party. Rinse. Repeat.