The Republican Shrinkage Problem - 21% identify as Republicans

[RamboLiberal]

The new Washington Post/ABC news poll has all sorts of intriguing numbers in it but when you are looking for clues as to where the two parties stand politically there is only one number to remember: 21.

That's the percent of people in the Post/ABC survey who identified themselves as Republicans, down from 25 percent in a late March poll and at the lowest ebb in this poll since the fall of 1983(!).

In that same poll, 35 percent self-identified as Democrats and 38 percent called them Independents.

These numbers come on the heels of Steve Schmidt, former campaign manager for Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential bid, declaring the Republican party a "shrinking entity" last week -- citing the decline of GOP numbers in the west, northeast and mountain west as evidence.

And they show a somewhat significant decline from even last November's election when exit polls showed 32 percent of voters identifying as Republican as compared to 39 percent for Democrats and 29 percent for independents and others. (A caveat: voters tend to see things through a more partisan lens after having just voted in a presidential election than they do in an April poll.)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/parsing-the-polls/21-percent.html

[qb]

1. Not to worry... Republicans are never concerned with poll data.

:sarcasm:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Shrinkage.... always remember George.... no not that George...

[depakid]

3. The few, the proud

the proudly stupid.

It's gotten past the point where identifying one's self as a Republican raises issues about the person's character and intelligence.

[county worker]

4. If the repubs shed the freepers they'll have no one left to vote for them.

And since freepers believe in fairy tales I guess Faux will keep the lies coming.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Well, the political climate is cold for Republicans right now.

Some shrinkage is natural.

[louis-t]

6. They're all 'independents' now.