G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States

The NYT reports today:

"Well before Senators Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level. For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all."

As the guest editorial from Engineer of Knowledge suggests, many Republicans are fed up with the so-called 'new conservatives' aka neocons who took over their party. The data reveals that in the 26 states and the District of Columbia where registration data were available, the total number of registered Democrats increased by 214,656, while the number of Republicans fell by 1,407,971.

Fed up with Bush/Cheney/Rove politics? Fed up with massive spending? Fed up with the war in Iraq? Fed up with the politicizing of the basic framework of government here in America?

I don't know the answer because I am not a Republican, but my eyes are not shut either. My long-time friend and contributor to this blog, UptheFlag and I applauded the great principles of the Republican Party in men like Ev Dirksen, Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller. These men were visionaries rather than politicians, men who understood the phrase of the Constitution, 'We the People.' They did not rape the masses to benefit the few. They did not seek wars of aggression. They did not seek to enlarge the role of the Executive Office. They were genuine patriots.

They were, in effect, all that George W. Bush was not. After 8 years, it seems that Republicans are abandoning the once-great GOP. Yet, the question must be asked: who is leaving ship and who is staying aboard? Who are these 1,407,971 Republicans who have left the Party? Were they Dirksen Republicans or Gingrich Republicans? In other words, are the remaining Republicans the neoconservatives along with other 'stew' members such as the Fundamentalists and the Reactionary Right-wing?

One wonders why the Rockefeller Republicans like Olympia Snowe and her cohort in Maine Susan Collins along with the other dwindling New England Republicans allowed their party to be infiltrated with these sham-Republicans. Was it all about winning elections? Was it the quantity than quality?

If the GOP goes down to massive defeat this fall, it will not quite be an enormous victory for America. One-party rule seldom benefits a democracy. A healthy give-and-take, collaboration and common vision is the ideal to move our nation forward.