Who are we losing?

[mrgorth]

I also debate politics on a Philadelphia Flyers message board and there is at least 1 pro-war dem that supposedly worked with the Clinton campaign or something. Anyway, here is his response to a thread about Zell: "You'd be surprised Mark at how many people, not just Zell Miller, are being driven out of the party. Most of those people are pretty silent out of embarrassment at the rhetoric being used and accusations being leveled. Moderate voters will make themselves heard however in November 2004. The candidates drive them away at their own peril."

to which I responded:
I'm a member of the local democratic committee. My father is involved in south jersey politics as a democrat and has been since I was a kid. I'm on so many mailing lists and message boards I've lost count. There are candidates that were against the war and candidates that were for the war. Edwards, Lieberbush and Gephardt for example make no apologies for their support of the war. Any democrat that is happy with the job that the shrub is doing can switch parties right after they kiss my a$$. George W. Bush is the most radical, divisive, right wing president in the contemporay history of the US. If you like him, fvcking vote for him. Moreover, anyone who thinks they can get elected with the platform of "The President is an honorable man doing a fine job in tough times and we should support him 100%" is an idiot that I would want in no association I'm a member of. Anyone that thinks that Bush is just so fvcking great we should just give him the extra 4 and wait for 2008 should register as a republican. If you need the forms let me know and I'll make sure they get sent to you. To sum up, anyone who wants to leave can. We don't need them. We're going to have so many more people registed as dems by '04 noone will even remember who left.

Am I right as I think I am. I mean, how would we even try to woo people away from the shrub if they like him so much? How many of these yahoos are there and can we win without them.

[Eloriel]

1. Somoebody else who drank the losing DLC koolaid

I think you're dead on right.

And I'll say more. Objectively, George Bush has literally ruined what took many years -- more than just the "decades" usually remarked -- to create in this country. We are on the verge of bankruptcy, reviled around the world, ugh -- on and on. If there's ANYone who doesn't take exception to all the daily atrocities Bush&Co. have heaped upon this country, then THEY are either delusional or as sociopathic as the Bushies.

Period.

Hell, even Republicans are leaving the GOP because of Bush and flocking to candidates like Dean and (they say), Clark.

Eloriel

[raysr]

2. "What's it gonna take truthseekers?!!!"

Mike Malloy every nite.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. If that first poster worked in the Clinton campaign

it was probably as a Republican mole.

[Isome]

4. Am I right as I think I am.

Yes, you are!!

I live in a military town and just last month discovered Republicans at a 'Democrats meet up' who are sick to death of Bush's lies: Iraq; corporate scandal; war profiteering. Their concerns are the same as ours.

My best friend is in the Air Force, she, her husband, and their friends are sick to death of Bush's lies and want to get out from under his illegitimate reign.

[LittleApple81]

5. I found a quote in the article about Bogota's (Colombia) new mayor:

At the same time, Garzon bristles at the suggestion that he's moving to the middle. "Centrism is like asexuality," he said, frowning. "It has no smell, no color, no taste."

[Ladyhawk]

6. I left the Republican Party on principle.

And I wouldn't dream of going back.

[dolstein]

7. You want to know who we're losing? I'll tell you . . .

We're losing Catholics. Catholics used to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Now we're lucky if we can break even.

We're losing blue collar men. Again, blue collar households used to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. Democrats continue to do reasonably well among blue collar women, but blue collar men are increasingly likely to vote Republican.

We're losing rural voters. Now it's true that some rural states have traditionally voted Republican, but what support the Democratic Party did once enjoy has dropped precipitously in recent years.

We're losing Southern whites. Granted, this was inevitable to some extent as the Democratic Party in the South changed from being a segregationist party to a pro-civil rights party. But support for the Democratic Party among Southern white voters continues to fall and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight.