How difficult is it for Republicans to vote against their Party ?

[kentuck]

Traditionally, Republicans seem to be more loyal to their Party than do the Democrats. However, there have been times that Repubs have left their Party to vote for a Third Party, just as the Democrats have. The last time it happened with the Democrats was with Ralph Nader - due to discouragement with the Democratic Administration's policies on NAFTA and trade treaties and welfare reform. The Republicans did it with Ross Perot when Bush Sr betrayed them on their no taxcut pledge. So, it does happen.

However, there is no Third Party candidate this time for the Repubs. The Republican voter doesn't have a whole lot of choice. No doubt if a Tom Tancredo or some other right-winger was running as a Third Party candidate, it would rip the Republican Party open. Maybe we can talk Joe Lieberman into running as an Independent candidate for President?? :)

[C_U_L8R]

1. It depends how easy we make it

We can welcome Republicans in ...
not only with our shared disgust
at the Bush regime.. but on many
shared values.

(or we can scare them away)

Rove is desparately trying to paint
the Dems as the bad guys... and that's
a big battle to fight for us.

The Democratic Party... we have a lot in common

[Atman]

3. We're The Restoration Party

;)

[blondeatlast]

5. Oooh, that's good!

:applause:

[Poppyseedman]

2. Most Republicans I know would rather not vote at all

then to for a democrat. Unless that Democrat is a Zell Miller.

They consider not voting a vote against their party.

That's why GOTV is so important in 2006.

[blondeatlast]

4. A distinction has to be made between old-line conservatism and neo-con,

RW zealots, I think.

I live in Goldwater-Conservative Arizona, and many of the Goldwater types are absolutely horrified by the neocon agenda and are just looking for an excuse to bolt.

I think we can reach many old-line conservatives--look at John Dean and Kevin Phillips as examples. Either one would prefer to chew their arm off before they'd vote for another neo-con or a Bush enabler.

We OWN some of the issues that wre previously the birthtright of the GOP:

*fiscal responsibility
*limited government power
*reluctance to get involved in other governments

The problem becomes presenting those as our issues without alienating many on the far Left who may feel there is no choice but to vote Democratic this time. I don't see that we need to move to the center to attract these votes, but we need to have a solid agenda that bridges the Left and the old-guard Right on common goals and concerns--right now, there are many to choose from!

[blondeatlast]

6. "Maybe we can talk Joe Lieberman into running as an Independent"

I realize your kidding a bit here, but the conservatives that are apt to vote non-GOP won't vote for a third party at all, I expect.

Many of the types most apt to bolt the GOP are very much traditionalists--which is yet one more way we can appeal to thm.

[izzie]

7. I voted Republican until RR and my first vote was for Ike

I started really getting interested in what was going on with the Vietnam war and it was a slow thing until I finally went down and took my name of the voting list for the party and put it on the Dem.and have voted that way since. I will say that I was happy with Nader and his thinking. I think he is more a Dem. than half the people we have in Congress but can not see voting a third party as it is a waste.

[rock]

8. Loyalty = lack of critical analysis

It's okay in personal matters to be loyal. In matters of the good for society, I recommend a more rational approach.

[sofa king]

9. Fuck. Them.

Seriously, fuck disaffected Republicans. I don't care where they go or who they vote for or if they vote at all, so long as they don't come here.

To be a Republican you have to have a high degree of tolerance for greed, hate, bigotry, racism, and war--in fact, tolerance for those things is pretty much all the tolerance a Republican can afford to have. You have to be willing to let slide the most vile affronts to our democratic process and to the Constitution. If you're anything less than fabulously wealthy, you have to be a fucking moron.

I don't want people like that having any influence at all upon the Democratic Party. I don't want my Party feeling as if it must compromise to accomodate a mob of ill-informed trogdolytes who will just return to their accustomed deviltry the next time another frothing shaman stirs them up.

Instead, I would like to see the Democratic Party go straight after those idiots. I would like to see them ridiculed and marginalized as the giant John Birch Society that they have become. I would like to see the elections of 06 and 08 to be cast as "The War on Your Dumbass Fucking Neighbor With the "W" Sticker on His SUV." Some of them will be shallow enough to side with the Dems just because we're likely to be the winners, and I'll happily take those votes, but they don't deserve jack shit from us.

And if the unfortunate fact of the matter is that there are a hundred million of them in this country and they must robotically tick the "R" column no matter what, so be it--our nation will choke and die on its own stupidity and the world will be better off for it. We need to win over their children, not the knuckle-draggers themselves.

Their souls are lost, and we'll lose ours too if we dare court them.

[Zorra]

10. Impossible when voting machines change the (D) to an (R). n/t