I wouldn’t want to admit it, either

September 1, 2006

Rasmussen Reports conducts a national tracking poll of 15,000 voters per month, and in its latest round of polling, they found fewer and fewer people who wanted to identify themselves as Republicans.

The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. Just 31.9% of American adults now say they’re affiliated with the GOP. That’s down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006. […]

The number of Democrats has grown slightly, from 36.1% at the beginning of the year to 37.3% now. Those who claim to be unaffiliated have increased to 30.8% this month. That’s the highest total recorded since Rasmussen Reports began releasing this data in January 2004.

Add it all together and the Democrats have their biggest net advantage — more than five percentage points — since January 2004. In the first month of 2006, the Democrats’ advantage was just 1.6 percentage points. Last month, 32.8% of adults said they were Republicans and 36.8% identified themselves as Democrats.

Given the past several years, can you really blame people for distancing themselves from the GOP? If I were a Republican, I wouldn’t want to admit it, either.

I have to say this is a warning to both parties – though the messages are different.

For the GOP I think this says that the current incarnation of the GOP with its theocratic tendancies as it is practiced by this administration and 99.9% of the members of Congress is not what they want. For the Democrats I think this means you need to offer a stronger and more cohesive message that is a bit more muscular as opposed to a laundry list (and I would add- stop letting the GOP dictate your party).

  • The bad side of this is when you talk to someone that parrots every line from Limbaugh but then holds her hands up with the escape clause: “And I’m not a Republican, I’m an independent, because they are all the same!! bla bla the Democrats are hysterics, they just hate Bush but have no plan.. bla bla”

  • By leaving the GOP are they finally getting wise to the Bush Crime Family, or do they want and even more rightist regime? I’m afraid that there are some ex – GOP’ers who they even more fascistic than Bush.

  • By leaving the GOP
    Comment by Proudleftists

    I don’t think they’re “leaving.” They haven’t changed – they are just embarrassed to admit they are Republicans (as CB and RafaelH say).

    Just as today’s “Libertarian” is a Republican ashamed to say so.

  • hey rafaelh

    if they’re gonna roll around in the mud with pigs, they’re gonna smell like pig stuff no matter what.

    “The bad side of this is when you talk to someone that parrots every line from Limbaugh but then holds her hands up with the escape clause: “And I’m not a Republican, I’m an independent, because they are all the same!! bla bla the Democrats are hysterics, they just hate Bush but have no plan.. bla bla”
    Comment by rafaelh”

  • At the beginning of the year, the Democrats held an 1.6 percentage point advantage over the Republicans in party identification. As of last month, the advantage is a full 4 percentage points different for Rasmussen poll responders. (Is that math correct?)

    The truth is that only math that matters is when the polls close on election night. I’m going dream of a woman becoming Speaker of the House between now and the morning after the election in November.

  • The question is how do the voting machines tabulate?
    What people are saying may not be what is counted.
    I can see the headline, “Dramatic Republican Upset Landslide”
    by the magical mystical minority majority.

  • Bumper sticker: Are you ashamed of supporting Bush yet? You ought to be.

    The Bushies can’t be fascists. They can’t even make the trains run on time.

  • Less people considering themselves Republicans must be the reason candidates in my area are hiding their party affiliation in my area. I’ve been looking at campaign signs and websites for Republicans in my area and they seem to have become somewhat shy about who they are. Of course, if I was in their shoes I would be ashamed too.

  • The truth is that only math that matters is when the polls close on election night. — slip kid no more

    Quite so. Sometimes, I think that all those polls are one big “eye-soaping”, intended to keep us too distracted to focus on plowing on. Also…

    I have recently signed up for the Zogby poll and, today, got my first one to fill out. Among others, there was a question about my political leanings: Progressive/Very Liberal, Liberal, Moderate, etc. 6 yrs ago, I would have probably ticked off Liberal, or even Very Liberal (ie daring). But, given the skew to the right in our present-day politics, I think of my views as simply “basically sane”, ie Moderate.

    I think some of the Republicans may have been going through a similiar (if reverse) process of re-calibration.

    And then, of course, there’s yet another explanation… It’s not just being embarassed about belonging to the loony-tune trend of thought, but about belonging to the losing trend of thought. Nobody likes to be a loser and even less so being *seen* to be a loser (vide Bush and his reluctance to change the course on Iraq).

  • Fewer people considering themselves Republicans must be the reason candidates in my area are hiding their party affiliation in my area. I’ve been looking at campaign signs and websites for Republicans in my area and they seem to have become somewhat shy about who they are. Of course, if I was in their shoes I would be ashamed too. — marcus alrealius alrightus (9)

    TPM also made much fuss about the un-affiliated candidate signs (they particularly mentioned Steele, in MD). But I think that must be the current flavor of the day in politics; neither the signs for Allen (R) nor the ones for Webb (D) in Virginia mention where the candidate is coming from.

    Probably, they all think that the voters ought to educate themselves and know who’s what, without being told.

  • If the GOP manages to make security, war on terrorism the only issue they’ll win again. Time for the opposition to find an issue, show and tell. In other words, change the subject.

    Taxes works well. How about proposing a tax cut? Let’s try, “we can lower taxes lower than you can lower taxes.” And. Remind everyone that the real taxes are being collected at the gas pump. The GOP has eliminated the middle man, the government and “gifting” the taxes directly to big oil. Big oil is now doing a covert trashing of alternate energy. Remember, “tax breaks for the rich” is both failed and worn out.

    Abortion is a good issue too. Why not propose to eliminate it and raise real property taxes to pay all the welfare to raise the unwanted and un adoptable babies. It was conservatives who ram rodded abortion through the supreme court because it lowered welfare costs, their big issue at the time. That’s a tax threat. In the confusion the voters will think it’s the GOP doing it since they have a patent on abortion. Pat Robertson will get so confused he’ll end up talking to the devil instead of God and announce that the supernatural being wanted Kerry to win and that’s why we’re being punished.

    There’s more than one way to skin a neocon. No more mister nice guy may be the only way to win. It was Hitler, (Nazi is now in fashion as a comparator) who said, “in order to beat me they will have to imitate me and they don’t have the guts for that.” The time is now to take off the gloves and I see it happening here and there.

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