# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**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 27, 2016, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/21 "2016-02-27T02:14:39Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > 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: It is not obvious, but then it is not clear that you should draw conclusions so soon. Lets look at 2012: [http://bipartisanpolicy.org/press-release/national-primary-turnout-hits-new-record-low-states-49-new-record-lows/](http://bipartisanpolicy.org/press-release/national-primary-turnout-hits-new-record-low-states-49-new-record-lows/) > [@](#): > > Democratic statewide presidential year primary turnout was at record lows in Alabama (5.3 percent of eligibles), Arkansas (7.6), California (11.7), Florida (6.5), Georgia (2.1), Illinois (7.4), Indiana (4.6), Kentucky (6.3), Louisiana (4.5), Maine (2.8), Maryland (8.0), Massachusetts (2.9), Missouri (7.0), Montana (11.5), Nebraska (6.2), Nevada (4.2), New Hampshire (7.5), New Mexico (9.7), Ohio (6.3), Oklahoma (4.1), Oregon (11.6), Pennsylvania (7.2), Tennessee (3.4), Texas (3.6), West Virginia (14.0) and Wyoming (4.00). Thing is that even with record lows for Democrats on the primaries for Florida and Nevada BTW Obama won both states in the presidential election. And the Election too. But… to be fair the Democrat candidate ran unopposed in 2012 🙂 so one could had made a bad assumption by reporting that almost no one did vote democrat in the primaries of Nevada in 2012. So it is better to look at 2008, in the primaries the republicans in Florida and Nevada did get a higher turnout in the primary election, but the democrats won Florida and Nevada anyhow in the general, and the election. [http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/FL.html](http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/FL.html) [http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/NV.html](http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/states/NV.html) ---
**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 27, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/22 "2016-02-27T20:51:40Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > 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. I don’t know about the 1950s, but in the 1960s George Wallace said that. An extremist outside the normal range of politics would - but today the extremists are right in the middle of the Republican party. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/23 "2016-02-27T22:46:31Z")
What the hell took you so long? You were a Republican when W ran? How about when Sarah Palin ran for VP? Dan Quayle? Nixon/Agnew? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/24 "2016-02-29T11:45:12Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > {…} In the 1950’s and 1960’s, it was often said that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the parties. {…} If you (not you necessarily) don’t know about [Nelson Rockefeller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_Republican), or [the Dixiecrats, or what “boll weevils”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Democrat) have to do with politics then that sentence, essentially, has no real meaning. Once upon a time ideology (con/lib) did not dictate party (R\*/D\*) affiliation! (\*Also, OUaT, party colors changed at least every four years and some years depended entirely upon where your TV tuner was pointing!) > [@panache45](#): > > What the hell took you so long? You were a Republican when W ran? How about when Sarah Palin ran for VP? Dan Quayle? Nixon/Agnew? Better late than never . . . I guess? CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/25 "2016-02-29T15:24:16Z")
You either: 1. vote for the Democrat 2. vote for a third party candidate or write-in, or 3. stay home, which is the same thing as 2. Do you want to stop the GOP from ruining the country or just sit around and watch others try to do it? That’s the question you ask yourself now. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/26 "2016-02-29T15:59:52Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > …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. This is almost enough for me to register Republican. As part of a bigger picture, political repair process. Almost. Most of me is curious to see what unrestrained liberalism would look like in America. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208/27 "2016-02-29T16:46:41Z")
> [@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 Hillary, she’s been known to work with Republicans. You go to her because she’s the best qualified candidate in the race. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renounced-my-affiliation-to-the-gop/747208.md?page=1)