I just heard Chris Kofinis on Keith Olbermann's show, saying that this election year could see a realignment similar to that of 1980. Could this be? It seems like in 1980 (from my loose memory of the Reagan years), people who had previously identified themselves as "liberal" or as "Democrats" started thinking of themselves as "conservative" and as "Republicans". Will voting for Obama make people start thinking of themselves as "Democrats" going forward?
posted evening of Thursday, October 16th, 2008
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Well, the Republicans are probably toast, at least for a generation. Conservatism? Well, maybe not.
posted evening of October 16th, 2008 by Randolph
Interesting -- it's hard to imagine what would happen if the Republicans are toast for a generation -- I mean I guess there's a parallel with the experience of liberals over the last couple of decades, where the only way they could generally get power was by moving to the right. But I can't see the GOP moving to the left... Does this mean they will be a minority party until they're able to engineer another Reagan type of scenario? ...Idle speculation...
posted evening of October 18th, 2008 by Jeremy
There were once liberal Republicans; there could be again. I think not for a generation, though. The parties dance. They are geographic coalitions rather than ideological factions. The Republicans were once the party of Lincoln. Southern racists were once solidly Democratic. Who knows what will be in another generation?
posted evening of October 18th, 2008 by Randolph
Right -- I guess my question is, what happens with the Christian Conservative bloc. I guess it wouldn't be out of the question for them to support Democratic candidates who vote for economically liberal policy and against abortion rights.
posted evening of October 18th, 2008 by Jeremy
