The Pew report released ten days ago represents possibly the strongest indication yet of a major ongoing partisan realignment, along the lines of what was last seen in 1930/1932–or at least half of one, as people are leaving the Republican Party in droves–almost one in five since 2004–while more independents are leaning Democratic. So many other things have been happening, however, that it doesn’t seem as if this report has gotten nearly the attention that it deserves. If nearly one in five people had left the Democratic Party since 2004, the coverage would have been so intense, it would have driven Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears into obscurity, but with the GOP undergoing collapse, not so much. Still, why are WE paying so little attention? And, more importantly, what can we do to take maximum advantage of this turn of events?
Pew (3/20):
The balance of party identification in the American electorate now favors the Democratic Party by a decidedly larger margin than in either of the two previous presidential election cycles.
In 5,566 interviews with registered voters conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press during the first two months of 2008, 36% identify themselves as Democrats, and just 27% as Republicans.
In particular, good as the news may be for Democrats, it’s main importance may be in calling attention to a potential for even further, and much more substantial gains–if Democrats will recognize the opportunity, and move to seize it.
… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Open Left>
Democrats need to concentrate on what sets up apart from Republicans, and especially on how McConJob is McSame as Bush. The media will not do it. They’d much rather cover the delegate fight between Clinton and Obama. So spreading the truth falls to us. But we have so much ammunition, it’s hard to know where to start. The GOP has brought us an illegal and immoral failed war, election fraud, spying on Americans, torture, rendition, kangaroo courts, illegally politicizing federal agencies, especially the DOJ, economic warfare against the poor and middle classes, the muzzling of scientists, corrupt outsourcing of contracts, $4.00 gasoline, scandal after scandal after scandal, and most of all, the collapse of our economy. We have the power to put the GOP out of balance, if only we choose to use it.
Cross-posted from Politics Plus
