Beet
Atlas Star
Posts: 29,018
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« on: April 07, 2004, 07:17:54 PM » |
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California isn't the only states Republicans have huge voter registration drives. The Wash. Post recently reported Republican registration in Calvert county, Md., which has had a Democratic advantage for decades, recently exceeded Democratic registration for the first time. Shortly after that, Democratic registration once again took the lead, but probably not for long... Any look at national party identification shows Republicans reaching parity with Democrats since 9-11 for the first time since the 1930s. The % Democratic identifiers peaked in the 1960s, when the whole country was practically Democrat. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a lot of this was lost to Independents, who surged as a demographic at the cost of both parties. By the late 1970s, only about 20% of Americans identified themselves as Republicans, and some newsmagazines were predicting the end of that party. During the '80s, Republican identification rose, Democratic identification declined, but this was halted during the Clinton years. The slide for Dems resumed again starting around 2000. If current trends continue, there will be more registered Republicans by Nov. 1 than registered Democrats, for the first time in 70 years.
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