Keep in mind that the Post-Gazette endorses Democratic Party candidates almost exclusively, but there are some comments in the editorial that Republicans should mull over.
From the editorial:
In May 2006, Democratic voters outnumbered Republicans by 550,000 statewide. Two and half years later, that number had more than doubled to 1.2 million. Little wonder that Barack Obama won the state handily in November.The newspaper goes on to say the the defectors are more educated and more affluent that the typical Republican and also support abortion. That sounds like a Democrat to me.
The news for Republicans is worse the deeper one goes into the findings. It's the moderates and liberals who fled the party -- almost two out of three voters who abandoned the GOP for the Democrats identified themselves in those terms. Fully 53 percent who left strongly agreed that the GOP had become too extreme in its positions.
Is it possible that hundreds of thousands of Democrats have been masquerading as Republicans all these years?
The major factors causing defections, the newspaper says, were the presidency of George W. Bush (68 percent) and the war in Iraq (54 percent).
Hmmm. George W. Bush is back in Texas and the Iraq War has been won according to no less of an authority than The New York Times.
The Post-Gazette's advice for the GOP? Become more like Democrats. Why didn't anyone think of that before?
Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.
1 comment:
I've been a republican since I was 25 years old. I used to consider myself staunchly in the middle of our party, lately I've felt a lot farther to the left. Politics and religion don't need to intermingle.
I'm extremely offended by this statement: "The newspaper goes on to say the the defectors are more educated and more affluent that the typical Republican and also support abortion. That sounds like a Democrat to me."
First off, it sounds like you're saying that being "more educated and affluent" is a Democrat trait, which is obviously ridiculous. I realize that you're referring to the abortion thing, but you must realize that all republicans don't share your religious ideology.
I would imagine that not many people in the country "support abortion," and instead support a person's right to decide how their own body is treated. Not all republicans are pro-life, contrary to your belief. There are large quantities of republicans who are centrists (or moderates if you like that word) and think the social policies of the republican party are absurd. Ours used to be a party of small government and non-intervention. The reason that people are leaving in droves today is because we've taken the worst part of the democratic party, their "government is the solution" idea, and kept the worst part of our own party, our social agenda.
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