# Renounced my affiliation to the GOP **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 26, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208 "2016-02-26T15:49:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/1 "2016-02-26T15:49:33Z")
The republicans have gone way over the edge toward bat shit crazy. I am renouncing my affiliation to the party and I know several others who have also. Where do we go now??? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/2 "2016-02-26T15:52:13Z")
You have joined the largest political party in the country, the independents. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/3 "2016-02-26T15:53:11Z")
Stop identifying with a party. Many of us don’t. Vote for people based on issues. Not just one please, but their overall support for things you believe are important. And if there’s no one like that, vote for the lesser of two weevils. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/4 "2016-02-26T15:55:15Z")
I guess you could become a Democrat and try to keep that party from going too far from center. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/5 "2016-02-26T16:21:05Z")
If you end up thinking that each candidate/party is bat shit in his or her or its own way then you pick the one who you assess is less bat shit, or perhaps more vote against the one who is most insane. YMMV each race and each cycle. “Vote Candidate X: 10% less bat shit!” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/6 "2016-02-26T17:11:53Z")
I left the GOP with Anderson in 1980, but I didn’t identify as a Democrat until about 1997. Nothing says you have to be a member of a political party. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/7 "2016-02-26T17:20:31Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > I guess you could become a Democrat and try to keep that party from going too far from center. That is what I foresee many smart Republicans doing, but I agree that most of the disaffected will declare themselves to be independents. Still, I expect to see many “Republicans for Clinton” in the near future. Related to that, like canaries in a coal mine, many Republican scientists decided to go independent years ago because of the miasma coming from the current Republican party, foreseeing what I pointed many times before. [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/10/1994311/the-coming-gop-civil-war-over-climate-change-national-journal-says-reality-and-demographics-are-battling-the-kochs/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/05/10/1994311/the-coming-gop-civil-war-over-climate-change-national-journal-says-reality-and-demographics-are-battling-the-kochs/) > [@](#): > > Now reality is biting back, or, perhaps more accurately, nibbling back. **The new piece begins with MIT climatologist Kerry Emanuel, a registered Republican since 1973. He switched his registration to “independent” shortly after a not-so-successful meeting with Republican presidential candidates in the run up to South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary** **[The one from 2012 (note added)]**, a meeting arranged by the influential Charleston-based Christian Coalition of America: > > > [@](#): > > > > “The idea that you could look a huge amount of evidence straight in the face and, for purely ideological reasons, deny it, is anathema to me,” [Emanuel] says. > > > > ``` > > Emanuel predicts that many more voters like him, people who think of themselves as conservative or independent but are turned off by what they see as a willful denial of science and facts, will also abandon the GOP, unless the party comes to an honest reckoning about global warming. > > > > ``` And many other things, the prospect of giving the keys to the Center of Disease Control to an (also) anti vaccine guy like Trump keeps me up at night. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/8 "2016-02-26T17:57:51Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > The republicans have gone way over the edge toward bat shit crazy. I am renouncing my affiliation to the party and I know several others who have also. Where do we go now??? You go to the general (election). You don’t really qualify for the primary (election). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/9 "2016-02-26T20:50:05Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > The republicans have gone way over the edge toward bat shit crazy. I am renouncing my affiliation to the party and I know several others who have also. Where do we go now??? I did in 2000 when I thought - “the party nominated that cretin? I’m out of here.” I was right. I’ve never regretted it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/10 "2016-02-26T20:57:54Z")
“I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat.” – Will Rogers ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/11 "2016-02-26T21:02:51Z")
Dress up as a woman and jump in a lifeboat. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/12 "2016-02-26T21:17:53Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > The republicans have gone way over the edge toward bat shit crazy. I am renouncing my affiliation to the party and I know several others who have also. Where do we go now??? Welcome to the club of independents. Although I have voted for Republicans in the past, even for the presidency (McCain version 1.0 for example), it eventually got to the point where I could not, in good conscience, pull the lever for anyone in that party because of what it had morphed into. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/13 "2016-02-26T21:21:37Z")
For many years I’ve been advocating for a Dead Center Party. Come, join us. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/14 "2016-02-26T22:37:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I did in 2000 when I thought - “the party nominated that cretin? I’m out of here.” I was right. I’ve never regretted it. 2004 for me, embarrassingly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/15 "2016-02-26T22:46:40Z")
I may have been registered as a Republican right after high school, because that’s what my dad was. But I don’t remember. I probably was. I remember my best friend and I decided that the two-party system was for the birds, and we wanted to be independent. So we registered with the American Independent Party. :smack: That didn’t last long, I’ll tell you! All we saw was ‘independent’ and didn’t know what they were about. :o Then I noticed I could register to vote as ‘Non-Partisan’ – that is, unaffiliated with _any_ party. Thirty years on, I’m still a non-partisan independent voter – who sides with the Democratic Party. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/16 "2016-02-26T23:20:52Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Stop identifying with a party. Many of us don’t. > > Vote for people based on issues. Not just one please, but their overall support for things you believe are important. > > And if there’s no one like that, vote for the lesser of two weevils. In many states that precludes a voter from participation in the primaries. If the OP cannot force him/herself to come to the light and register as a Democrat, then stay in the GOP and vote for reasonable people in the GOP primaries. Remember, it’s not just the presidency, it’s many offices and all three governmental levels. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/17 "2016-02-27T00:18:55Z")
Here’s the thing … I’d hope that there would be a large number of rational voters like our op for whom the current GOP incarnation was a few steps too far into the whackadoodle. But there in fact are [record numbers](http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2016/02/24/a-political-revolution-is-happening-among-republicans) voting in the GOP primaries and caucuses. > [@](#): > > In Nevada Tuesday night, Trump received more votes – 34,531 – than the total number of Republican caucus-goers in either 2012 or 2008. > > So far, Nevada has seen the biggest increase in voter interest on the right: Republican turnout in the Silver State was up 56 percent over 2012 and 118 percent over 2008. > > Last Saturday’s GOP primary in South Carolina saw a 22 percent boost over 2012, while New Hampshire voting participation increased 14 percent. I seriously do not know what to make of that. This is not viewers watching the trainwreck that are the debates as entertainment; these are people who don’t normally bother to vote in the GOP selection process coming out to do so. No question that Trump is whackadoodle, or at least playing the role well, but his whackadoodle is tapping into something more than it is driving those who I would consider rational, like **HoneyBadgerDC** , away. I am at a loss. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/18 "2016-02-27T00:53:49Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > …I seriously do not know what to make of that. This is not viewers watching the trainwreck that are the debates as entertainment; these are people who don’t normally bother to vote in the GOP selection process coming out to do so. > > …I am at a loss. (post shortened) Why are you at a loss? Did you read the headline on your linked article? \*A Political Revolution is Happening - Among Republicans With Trump running, GOP turnout has smashed records, but Democratic voting is down across the board.\* GOP turnout has smashed records. and Democratic voting is down across the board. It should be obvious to everyone that the Democrats are winning. :rolleyes: But on a more serious note, Bernie and Trump are the new hotness. Hillary is the old and busted. New hotness, old and busted. It’s just not that difficult. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/19 "2016-02-27T01:06:20Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > The republicans have gone way over the edge toward bat shit crazy. I am renouncing my affiliation to the party and I know several others who have also. Where do we go now??? What’s wrong with being a liberal Republican? So what if there are hardly any others? In the 1950’s and 1960’s, it was often said that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the parties. That was supposed to be a bad thing. But I’d say that in a presidential system, where the legislature can be a different party from the executive, functioning government requires that the major parties have fairly similar ideologies – or none at all – or be an ideologically diverse big tent. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/20 "2016-02-27T01:21:41Z")
Meh on the Democratic side. Down compared to 2008. There is no revolution, nothing like what was provoked by the Hillary v Obama battle. But compared to other cycles? Still very healthy turnout. Iowa 2004 turnout was 124K. In 2008 it was 236K. In 2016 it was 171K. But the increase on the GOP side? Unprecedented. Yes it is a revolution within the party with many who never before participated participating. Still not many more in absolute numbers than on the Democratic side (for example in Iowa it was 187K who participated in Republican caucus to 171K on the democratic side) but compared to past GOP participation? Hyuuuuge. They are coming out to vote for Trump and to vote against him but they are coming out because of him. More are doing that than looking to leave the party. Will they coalesce? Will it translate into massive general election day turnout of that lesser educated White group that usually does not show? Me no know. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208.md?page=2)