In a national survey led by the Republican pollster Frank Luntz, 1,000 people 18 to 26 were asked: “Out of today’s major political figures, who do you like and respect the most?” Thirty-one percent chose Bernie Sanders, followed by 18 percent for Barack Obama and 11 percent for Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Trump scored highest among Republicans, at 9 percent. In USA Today, Mr. Luntz called it a “a chasm of disconnection that renders every prominent national Republican irrelevant with the voting bloc that could control campaigns for the next 30 years.”...
A Pew Research Center report in 2014 noted that “some 43 percent of millennial adults are nonwhite, the highest share of any generation,” and that “the racial makeup of today’s young adults is one of the key factors in explaining their political liberalism.”...
Some Republicans might take comfort in the thought that people become more conservative as they age. But evidence for that is unclear, and a statistical model by Yair Ghitza and Andrew Gelman found that preferences in politics are typically set at an early age, with lasting influence...
07 April 2016
Is the Republican party incurring lasting damage ?
Excerpts from an op-ed piece in the New York Times:
I considered voting for Trump in the primary to punish the duplicitous GOP, but ultimately decided against it. There is a school of thought that conservatives must destroy the GOP in order to build a conservative party to replace it. It makes a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad that Trump advocated for a border wall with Mexico, which is an absolute necessity. But it's a shame that Trump's brand is now tarnishing an otherwise thoroughly respectable proposal.
I have read commentary from both the left and right suggesting the possibility that the era of a political system of only two parties will end during my (our) lifetime. I wouldn't be surprised.
DeleteThis elections cycle seems more embarrassing than anything.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats these days have a bad habit of ignoring local and state elections on the presumption that lasting success flows from occupying the White House. Look at state legislatures and governors houses around the country, and the GOP doesn't seem as dead as pundits have been saying for the past 8 years.
I quite agree. This week when Bernie Sanders won 99% of the counties from HRC, his followers failed to vote into office the liberal supreme court nominee, so a conservative appointee by Scott Walker won and will serve a 10-year term, giving the court a 5-2 conservative tilt.
DeleteDemocrats can't blame this on Republican redistricting or gerrymandering, because it was a statewide tally. In this state at least, the Republican party is much better organized (and probably better funded) than the Democrats.
I was always libertarian in my youth, fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but always voted R for their support of the 2nd amendment. BushII beat all the conservative out of me, now I vote D straight across the board. I can't stomach the anti-science viewpoints, as well as their general level of mean-spiritedness.
ReplyDeleteI also think our current policies are creating Gilded Age 2.0, collecting all assets in the hands of very few people. I'm not sure why so many people think this is OK.
That is a beautiful explanation of the current political climate. I feel much the same and always voted Democrat but that doesn't mean I feel great about their economic policies. The Republican anti science bent scares me the most...
DeleteTo be honest, I don't respect/trust politicians in general, and I'd prefer two equally matched parties to keep the corruption in check. I wouldn't feel great about either party getting too comfortable in the driver's seat.
Government should be like the yellow lines on the road: unobtrusive but there to keep us, as a society, all on the same page.
I was a Republican, as was everyone in my family, until the 80s. All the things I remember my dad saying about separation of state, the government has no business in your bedroom, etc. did a 180, and so did I. When I started teaching at the ripe old age of 45, I was asked if I wanted to join the union, and I replied that teachers are professionals, and should not be unionized. After I saw what went on in my school and how teachers were treated, I joined the union, and changed my registration. I get more liberal as I age, not less. I'm supporting Bernie, but will vote for Clinton if she is the nominee. Bernie is pushing her more to the left, where I am.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with @Humbaba about the danger of the very few controlling almost all the assets.