Hi,
Given former President George Bush Sr’s intention and that of other GOP leaders to vote for Hillary Clinton, I have the following questions:
1.When in US history has such party defection been so conspicuous?
2.Which presidential race does this compare to most?
I look forward to your feedback.
I tend to vote Democratic, however I voted for George Bush Sr. as did many other people. I feel he was a good president. But I did NOT vote for Bush Jr., I thought he was a jerk!
I know a lot of people (intelligent types) who vote for the most qualified person, not necessarily by which party they represent.
I think it is mostly special interest groups which always vote one way or another. I’ve talked with some ex-elected congressmen and senators. They are quite intelligent and suddenly change their tune once they get out of office. They will totally change their views on various issues. So no surprise in my book to see Republicans choosing a Democrat this time around.
It’s one thing for a former President, Senator, etc. to vote for a candidate of the other party. That, after all, is a private matter. It’s quite a bit different to endorse a candidate of the other party publicly.
It presumably happened with some former Southern Democrats as they eventually switched parties from the 70s on up though I don’t recall any specifics. I can’t recall any former President ever stating publicly he was not supporting ‘his’ party’s candidate. Teddy Roosevelt presumably did though I guess he’d switched partied by then to his own.
Since these are political questions, let’s move this to Elections.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
It’s not really that unusual.
In both the 1948 and 1968 elections southern Democrats bolted from the party and ran their own presidential candidates. In fact, progressive Democrats also rebelled in 1948, forcing a 3-way split among Democrats.
In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt repudiated his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft and ran against him.
In 1940 John Nance Garner went straight from being Franklin Roosevelt’s vice-president to competing against him for renomination.
And let’s not forget that in 1800 Aaron Burr was supposed to be Thomas Jefferson’s running mate, but, when the electors ended up in a tie, refused to step back to let Jefferson win.
Thank you all. Very helpful.
Colin Powell, himself a much-discussed GOP presidential prospect in 1996, raised eyebrows when he endorsed Obama in both 2008 and 2012. But the extent of dissatisfaction with “their candidate” this year among the GOP elite (such as it is) is very unusual. Hard to think of a candidate of a major party who was so conspicuously loathed by so many of his party’s elders.