I’ve heard various rumors of this on various news sources. The talk now is that the republicans are about to break from within over the budget, the war in Iraq, and the push of the religious right into the party. Even on the straight dope there have been some right wing posters voting democrat or third party because they didn’t like the way the party was going.
Could this happen?
I hope so. I hope these guys are smart enough to realize how damn close they came to losing everything because of Iraq and the budget.
I’d love to see it happen. I’d like to see the more sensible Republicans get into shouting matches with the Fundie wing of their party. Just once, I’d like to hear one Republican say to the other “Get the hell out of my party, you bigoted freak! I’d rather lose than rely on your support to win!” That would be the day I vote Republican. 
IMO,I say it’s hard to tell. The Southern conservative Democrat left the Democratic Party to join the Republicans. It seems the original fiscal conservative Republicans have been push off in a corner of the Republican’s “Big Tent” by these “Born-Again” Republican. I think it’s really up to the fiscal conservative group to split out. I don’t think they will since they were the original Republicans, and resistant to change, yadi-ya. Have the Republican come up with anything likeGramm-Rudman, lately? What may happen, is the primaries will grow in importance, and the actual elections will be pro forma for the most part (just like it was here in Texas).
And, on preview, I need to add that as a Texas Democrat, I don’t miss them in the least.
Oh, yeah, real close. Except for that little majority of the government thing.
I think he was referring to the numer of states that went 51-49, etc. unless you think this election wasn’t close :dubious:
It’s wishful thinking. The GOP thinks it’s won. Strength in unity will be the ticket in the near future. Down the road, as the Democratic Party is no longer seen a threat, loyalty will take a back seat.
It was so close the Republicans tightened their grip on the Senate and the House and retained the presidency. Did we both watch the same election?
:dubious: Yeah, I don’t know about the senate and house seats gained, but the presidential election was close. Ohio was close. Florida was close. Some of the southern states were close if memory serves. The polls throughout the election were close. Did you watch the election, or do you simply think that winning is enough and how close it is doesn’t matter.
Another thought I had. Is it possible that some republicans will distance themselves from the President in order to position themselves better for the 2008 race?
3.5 million people. That’s more than one tenth of the entire population! Ohio was “close”, sure, by 150,000 people. Wicked close. Smelled victory there for about two seconds but then I realized it was just the ether I’d snagged from work to make the pain of this loss go away. About the only thing I can hope for at this point is that the anti-gay amendment won’t pass because they don’t control that much of Congress… and even then I’m not even counting on that, and figuring that there exist twelve states which don’t want to amend the friggin constitution. Oh, and judicial appointments which might happen, making all three branches under right-wing control?
Yeah, close. National health care was right there.
It not only could, it most certainly will. The victors are certainly going to start arguing over the division of the spoils – and pointing fingers at each other now that blaming “Democrat obstructionism” is no longer a viable option.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the GOP to break up…
Having only 2 viable parties means its suicide to quit the GOP now. The democrats suck. These guys after supporting Bush… might as well profit from it now… they can jump ship closer to 2008.
Now if the US became a multi party system with 2 rounds of presidential voting… then we might think about something.
Either this is that that “fuzzy math” I keep hearing about, or al-Qaeda has somehow managed to kill 90% of the population without my hearing about it. :rolleyes:
Er…what? There are 300,000,000 people in the U.S. That makes the margin about 1.1% of the population.
Voters for Bush: ~19.7% of the population of the U.S.
Voters for Kerry: ~18.5% of the population of the U.S.
That sounds close to me, but what do I know?
-P
Whoops, sorry.
:o Either way, 3.5 mil is plenty of people given the ideological divide here.
The only place I have heard such talk is in the wishful musings of lefties. The GOP holds a diverisity of opinion, and I say that with a perfectly straight face. The DNC is more in danger of splitting (not that I think it will happen), as the Clinton center/moderates realize that aligning with the Moveon.org types is suicide in the national elections.
It was a conspiracy. Shh.
So, yeah, I fucked up the numbers. 2000 was a close election. It was a nailbiter, down to the last unrecounted vote. But Bush’s support didn’t say the same to make it a tight race. It grew to the tune of 9 million more supporters. That’s Los Angeles county, and that ain’t small no matter how you slice it. That a few million more democratic supporters came out of the woodwork for the presidential election makes the numbers seem close if that’s all you look at, but the overall results tell a very different story. In Ohio, the gap narrowed, from a %50/46% split to a 51/49% split, but Florida was overtaken handily. Let’s look at Ohio more closely, though, because the numbers aren’t quite so indicative of a close race. In 2000, Bush won Ohio by about 180 thousand, and this time by 160 thousand… the percentages just seem closer because of the independents being chucked. Otherwise it is only a ten percent decrease or so. I don’t know about you, but if I were Bush I wouldn’t have broken a sweat.
Everyone energized their base… to grow some. But the republican base grew considerably.
The presidential race came down to 160 thousand votes or so in Ohio, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The right came out in force, in a bigger force than before knowing full well what happened over the last four years.
It wasn’t close. I’m not going to say they right is in lock-step, but a schism in the party? If it was going to happen, I’d have thought it would have happened already. Ballooning deficit and an expensive nation-building war… I’d have never thought that was part of Republican politics, but this election shows otherwise.
Evereyone officially tell me to shut the fuck up. Ohio results so far:http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/OH/P/00/index.html
Difference is not 160K and I just suck. I will now shut up. :wally