Richard Shelby can't believe only 21% of American are self identified Republicans now

[NNN0LHI]

He said he thinks he could start a third party and do better than that.

:rofl:

[Wapsie B]

1. I have to wonder how many call themselves libertarian now?

[Atman]

2. Yeah, his new Bat Shit party could reach 100% identified as Bat Shit Crazy!

Sounds like a good formula, Dick! Let us know how it works out for you.

.

[walkaway]

3. But morning joke thinks the 38% independents are really conservatives and

he has a plan (book) about how to get them back.

They just don't get it do they?

[walkaway]

5. ...and by the way, when is Meeka going to get her head out from under Joe's desk.

It's disgusting!

[salguine]

30. No take head from under desk. That is where is wodka.

[rurallib]

10. Kill a few more staffers? More illicit gay encounters? More waterboarding?

Please tell us Joe!

[get the red out]

16. Their own definition of conservative has narrowed

to the point through the years that there is no way it could be 38%. The Republican Party has run off any kind of opposing view-points on social issues to the point that their tiny little tent hardly has room for the 21%. They weeded out any moderate thought in their ranks and now they see the result. It's what you get when you throw out mere fiscal conservatives in favor of the Christo-loonies and impose a litmus test for Christo-loonie commitment.

[mod mom]

4. Neither can I. After the GOP antics, I would be surprised at 10%!

[drm604]

6. Wow. Only 21%?

Do you have a link to that poll?

[Pirate Smile]

18. It was the Washington Post/ABC poll.

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

The Republican Shrinkage Problem
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.)

The Post poll numbers show the challenge for Republicans in stark terms.

The number of people who see themselves as GOPers is on the decline even as those who remain within the party grow more and more conservative.

That means that the loyal base of the party has an even larger voice in terms of the direction it heads even as more and more empirical evidence piles up that the elevation of voices like former vice president Dick Cheney does little to win over wavering Republicans or recruit Independents back to the GOP cause.

[drm604]

31. Thanks. n/t

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Well, you know you're in trouble when even your spokesmodels reject you

The few times a week I try to catch a little Hannity (just to plot his new position on the Republican insanity index) he is always trying to distance himself from actual Republicans, whom he says "lost their way". He styles his show now as "Conservatives in Exile" or, the "Conservative Underground"(!).

[groundloop]

8. Ewwwwww. How can you stand to watch that sh*&

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. No, I cannot stand to watch him. That would be a physical impossibility

But, sometimes when driving, my radio choices are limited to NPR or rightwing radio. Please believe me when I tell you that my area does NOT offer any liberal talk at anytime and I do not have XM. Of course, I am usually doing NPR unless they have on something unlistenable (happens more than you would think)and then I switch over to the rightwing station. They have Rush followed by Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity is a complete buffoon and his listeners who call in even more so. It's become even more obvious lately as people have peeled away from the Repblican Party. He is left with the real bottom dwellers who can barely craft complete sentences.

[DrDan]

14. but - I have to certainly agree with him

there is little in common between the neocons of today and the Ray-gun republicans.

In fact - the neocons have little in common with any reality-based group.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. With those numbers should be doing handstands.

It's amazing it's that high.

[KharmaTrain]

11. The Rushpublican Bubble...

Look at this like the market collapse. The GOOP rebranded itself in the late 60's with the Southern Strategy and began to "franchise"...bringing in all sorts of disaffected factions...racists, fundies and neo-cons. In the 80's, Raygunomics pushed the bubble as a well-oiled PR machine (now known as the Mighty Wurlitzer) began to twist and distort reality...somehow while defecit spending, rushpublicans were the party of "fiscal responsibility"...and while squandering billions on defense contractors, they were keeping us safe. Memes that expanded the bubble throughout the 90's...gaining more affulence for the rushpublicans and power. They reached their peak with the stealing of the 2000 elections and the Iraq invasion...the Wurlitzer now played loud and the bubble had expanded to its peak. But there was nothing but hate and ignorance to support it...nothing based in reality.

Over the past 3 years, we've seen a total implosion of this corrupt party. We didn't do it as much as they brought it upon themselves. Their unbridled greed led to abuses and self destructive...their stock price peaked and then busted. Pick the abuse...the Foley scandal, Katrina, Iraq, Terri Schaivo...each scandal tumbled the price and "stockholders" began to cash out.

And being the "free market" types the GOOPers have allowed their "economy" to free fall...and it continues to implode. Just like many of the corporations that are now flat on their backs, the rushpublicans have no ideas, no concept, no plan...just a lot of noise. They've turned inward and chased the moderates and independents out...and even among its "diehard", they have no clear leaader or path. It's a party that a good bankruptcy judge would disolve.

[fasttense]

12. And yet they make up 90% of the corporate media.

I wonder if any brain child has put together the crappy quality and neocon agenda of most corporate media outlets and the continuing decline of readership/viewership?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. They make up 90% of those setting the agenda for the corporate media. nt

[SpiralHawk]

25. You got it, fasttense - 90% of the corporate media pretend 'journalists'

The corporate media is a pathetic joke, in service only to the Republicon Borg, not to the truth or the citizens of the USA.

And they wonder why their audience share is collapsing. Discerning Americans have little use for the claptrap the right-wing corporate media spins.

[billyoc]

13. His own party colleagues ran campaign ads without the word "Republican" in them.

:rofl:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

23. I noticed campaign sign after campaign sign that did not use the word Republican

There's a message. Your own standard bearers won't bear the standard.

[MADem]

15. Those are the lazy and inattentive, at least half of them.

They're Republican because "they've always been Republican" or they haven't paid attention in the recent decades, and they're still reliving the "Greed is Good" era of Ronald Reagan.

[GinaMaria]

19. how many are calling themselves Democrats now?

or independents? and I do think he's right. He could start a new party and do better than that. That there are even 21% is shocking to me. More and more, people see government functioning, not it's deliberate destruction. Really hope the next round of elections makes these tools obsolete.

[Brewman_Jax]

20. Rats deserting a sinking ship

oh, the irony. :eyes:

[JaneQPublic]

24. And didn't Shelby desert the Democratic Party years ago to join the GOP?

It seems as though he's setting quite a pattern of changing party affiliation whenever public sentiment shifts. So much for the strength of his convictions.

[trof]

26. He sure did.

He ran as a Dem his first term.
AFTER he was elected he changed to repug.
:-(

[Brewman_Jax]

27. You're right

he was a democrat when he ran for the state legislature, and elected to the US Senate as a democrat. He changed parties in 1994 in time for the repub's contract on America and sweep of Congress. Coincidence? I think not.

[RDANGELO]

22. Many of them are cultural conservatives who are

completely out of touch with the rest of the country.

[underpants]

28. Oh PLEASE DO

start a third party

splinter your fading flock even further

:bounce:

Actually I think we need 5 parties but I think that would require a daring bit of leadership, please-you go first Shelby :bounce:

[OHdem10]

29. According to Gallop, the GOPers who left the Republican Party are

now identifying themselves as INDEPENDENT. The Independent Group
have grown by 8 to 10 percent.