California Republicans 're-registering as independents' to avoid affiliation with 'toxic' GOP
26 replies, posted
[url]http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/11/16/165216636/in-california-republican-is-becoming-a-toxic-label[/url]
[quote=NPR]If the election results were disappointing for Republicans nationally, they were devastating for the GOP in California.
It wasn't just President Obama's 21-point margin of victory. California Democrats gained four seats in Congress and will have two-thirds majorities in both houses of the state Legislature. But the struggles of the California Republican Party began long before last week.
In the past, Republicans have made history in California — there was the Reagan Revolution and Proposition 13, known as the "taxpayers revolt." But just before this election, California Republicans made history of a different sort.
It wasn't the kind of history anyone would brag about, says Dan Schnur, head of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.
"When one of the two major parties sees its voter registration dip below 30 percent, that ought to be a warning sign that Election Day is not going to go particularly well," Schnur says.
That's right — [B]just 29.4 percent of California voters are now registered Republicans.[/B] Meanwhile, a growing number of all voters in California are Latino, now more than one-fifth of the electorate.
In the past couple of elections, Latinos around the country voted roughly 2 to 1 for Democrats. But in California, Latinos have been fleeing the Republican Party since this ad ran in 1994:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLIzzs2HHgY[/media]
"They keep coming," the ad said. "Two million illegal immigrants in California. The federal government won't stop them at the border."
Then-Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, hitched his re-election campaign to Proposition 187, which denied public services for illegal immigrants. That included banning children from public schools.
And even though Proposition 187 was thrown out by the courts, "the bill is coming due," says Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. "This has mobilized vast numbers of Latino voters. Now they're really pouring to the polls."
The growing Latino vote definitely got the attention of Republicans on the national stage. Last Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the GOP must change its tune on immigration reform or risk further losses in the nation's fastest-growing voter group.
[B]"We have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing Hispanics," he said, "and we can get them back with some effort on our part."[/B]
Graham proposed an immigration overhaul that included a path to citizenship. But California Republicans may not embrace that shift in policy.
"That's seen by many folks as rewarding people who've cheated the system, at the expense of people who've gone through the system legally," says Ron Nehring, a GOP strategist who was chairman of the state Republican Party until this year.
Reaching out to Latinos won't by itself stem the Republicans' decline in California.
[B]Schnur says they face other demographic challenges: "an electorate that is younger, an electorate that is more single, an electorate that is more urban."[/B]
"Each of these constituencies have favored Democratic candidates in the past," he says.
[B]So much so that in California, "Republican" is now a toxic label, Sonenshein says.[/B]
[B]"Some Republicans are now re-registering as independents to run for office — simply not to have the word 'Republican' next to their name," he says.[/B]
Schnur believes the GOP will not allow this to a happen on a national level.
"If national Republicans begin to rethink their outreach to some of these voting communities, then maybe that drags California Republicans along with them as well," he says.
Preventing California from once again being a national trendsetter.[/quote]
You know, I've never understood the purpose of having voters register as a certain party. It's not like they're running for office or anything.
Anyways, I predict that the Republican Party will undergo quite a bit of change in the next few years.
"After hanging out with all the hardcore conservatives, I decided to become a liberal....
After hanging out with all the hardcore liberals, I decided to become an independent."
Good. Independents don't get the recognition they deserve, it's not a two-party country anyways.
The Toxic G.O.P. might work as a rapper name
It would be nice if there were no political parties at all.
[QUOTE=Boba_Fett;38479276]It would be nice if there were no political parties at all.[/QUOTE]
Don't you want the world run by corporations?
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;38479354]Don't you want the world run by corporations?[/QUOTE]
free market 2012
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;38479354]Don't you want the world run by corporations?[/QUOTE]
Look out the window and you'll see one.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;38479354]Don't you want the world run by corporations?[/QUOTE]
When did I ever say that? Sure, I may be free-market, but I think corporations have no place in politics.
Ideally, I think there should be no political parties, no PACs, and candidates should present themselves on behalf of their own merits. There's way too much corruption in the current two party system.
[QUOTE=TestECull;38479780]Look out the window and you'll see one.[/QUOTE]
All I see are people.
Oh...right.
They still suck, even as Independents. Some dumb business man with Republican views tried running as an Independent to unseat my Democrat representative. Good thing he failed.
This is actually happening for both sides of the GOP. Extremists who feel the party is becoming too Left are becoming Independent, while moderates who feel the party is too Right are becoming Independent.
The GOP may really have a crisis on it's hands if it keeps up.
Grimy backstabbers.
[QUOTE=Splash Attack;38479014]You know, I've never understood the purpose of having voters register as a certain party. It's not like they're running for office or anything.
Anyways, I predict that the Republican Party will undergo quite a bit of change in the next few years.[/QUOTE]
In most states, it's the only way you can vote in the Primaries.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;38481232]This is actually happening for both sides of the GOP. Extremists who feel the party is becoming too Left are becoming Independent, while moderates who feel the party is too Right are becoming Independent.
The GOP may really have a crisis on it's hands if it keeps up.[/QUOTE]Hurray I say. If the GOP disintegrates then there will be less to block up Congress. Similarly, with more independents in the market, then serious independents such as the Green Party will become more prominent.
I would rather have the GOP recover and actually stand for something good. Two party systems like ours depend on two forces of approximately equal size and strength.
[QUOTE=person11;38483523]I would rather have the GOP recover and actually stand for something good. Two party systems like ours depend on two forces of approximately equal size and strength.[/QUOTE]
It would be cool if the GOP faded away, the Democrats began to fill the niche of the Republican Party(being a conservative party), and the Green Party became the new "left" party in the USA.
A man can dream, can't he?
[QUOTE=yawmwen;38483565]It would be cool if the GOP faded away, the Democrats began to fill the niche of the Republican Party(being a conservative party), and the Green Party became the new "left" party in the USA.
A man can dream, can't he?[/QUOTE]
I hate to be that guy but people need to be represented fairly, even if they are nutter GOP people.
[QUOTE=Ridge;38481294]In most states, it's the only way you can vote in the Primaries.[/QUOTE]
For the Republican party, yes, not for the Democratic party. The reason being, of course, Republicans want to silence anyone who doesn't agree with the platform forced upon the party by their increasingly corrupt leadership.
[QUOTE=Zambies!;38483574]I hate to be that guy but people need to be represented fairly, even if they are nutter GOP people.[/QUOTE]
Well yea but the Democratic Party would be the new platform that they would use.
[editline]17th November 2012[/editline]
My "dream idea" would be that progressives, social democrats, and even "soft socialists" would be more fairly represented and open in our government.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;38483624]Well yea but the Democratic Party would be the new platform that they would use.[/QUOTE]
But I don't want the democratic party to be hijacked by conservatives, I like them.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;38484108]But I don't want the democratic party to be hijacked by conservatives, I like them.[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry to tell you this, but the Democratic Party was hijacked by conservatives a long time ago.
A moderate Democrat is an oldschool Republican.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;38484246]I'm sorry to tell you this, but the Democratic Party was hijacked by conservatives a long time ago.
A moderate Democrat is an oldschool Republican.[/QUOTE]
There are centrist democrats today and up until the 90s there were very conservative democrats. Other than that, this post makes no sense at all.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;38484246]I'm sorry to tell you this, but the Democratic Party was hijacked by conservatives a long time ago.
A moderate Democrat is an oldschool Republican.[/QUOTE]
To rephrase: I don't want to choose between the Greens or or Republicans V2.
no party is the best type of party
(< no party)
[QUOTE=Boba_Fett;38480628]When did I ever say that? Sure, I may be free-market, but I think corporations have no place in politics.
Ideally, I think there should be no political parties, no PACs, and [B]candidates should present themselves on behalf of their own merits.[/B] There's way too much corruption in the current two party system.[/QUOTE]
It's neigh impossible for this to exist without the other things existing with it. According to Duverger's Law a two-party state is an inevitable byproduct of a winner-takes-all democratic system, and the alternative pretty much requires that political parties exist. You can have one party, two parties, or 3+ parties, but you can't have none unless you somehow force people not to create them.
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