GOP party loyalty is a lagging indicator. The diehards are the last to die

[Tom Rinaldo]

Independents have swung more toward Biden in large part because more and more ex-Republicans now consider themselves Independents. Relatively sane people feel out of place in a party that increasingly manifests as crazed and craven simultaneously. So they leave. Which leaves extremists left holding the bag. Which means any remaining Republicans are loath to find any common ground with Democrats who they increasingly view as "the enemy." Which just drives more even semi-sane Republicans out of that party fold, making the party more extreme still.

So it's not surprising that the current crop of "establishment Republicans" are so stridently Trump loyalists. They appeal to an ever narrower sliver of voters in order to remain in power, since they can't win in a general election without getting past a Republican primary first. Meanwhile State Party officials are selected by hard core party activists who have purged voices of reason from their ranks in behind closed doors showdowns, so there's no room for sanity left inside of Republican Party structures either.

The Republican Party is in the early to middle stages of a death spiral, boiling itself down to a toxic sludge. They must undermine democracy to keep their hold on power. Trump is as much a product of that dynamic as he is a driver of it.

[hlthe2b]

1. One might think any sentient Republican would dearly hate the connotations from the party

and what it symbolizes now and would have crossed over to be independent some time ago. So, the media's obsessive fixation on MAGATs-- as the indicators of conservative politics--might well be masking the most important risk to TSF and his "party." If there is any sanity left in this country, that will come to pass.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. I think Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is the one to watch in that regard

She already had to run as an Independent once to keep her seat. And Alaska rejected Sarah Palin for Congress in 2022 in favor of a moderate Democrat instead.

[Arthur_Frain]

6. Don't hold your breath.

She’s my nepo-senator, regrettably.

We canvassed the telephones during the impeachment trial and all it did was put us on the enemy’s radar. Deep red state up here, (fortunately I have an home in a blue enclave) and she’s in no danger of being ousted again.

Mary Peltola is the democrat who upended Palin, but the only reasons that happened is because she’s an Alaskan Native, and somehow, someone managed to get ranked choice voting on our ballots up here, and it pulled the fangs and claws of the extremists. Peltola will have to work very hard every election cycle going forward to keep her seat.

Funny story: A few days after the election, a right wing redneck trumper pops into the dispensary I was at at announced he was taking signature to put an initiative on the ballot to remove ranked choice voting. I actually chuckled and said “no, I won’t sign, we finally got it right”. He left without getting a single signature. But they do know that the ranked choice means they will have a far more difficult time selling their bullshit, and it burns.

[Tom Rinaldo]

8. Thanks for those insights...

Seems like there's no reason to think she would jump the GOP ship anytime soon, and even if she did, that would not make her an Angus King type Democrat leaning Independent. But I can't think of any Republican now in the U.S. Senate who is more likely than her to shed the Republican label, however she might then redefine herself is she did.

I envy you for getting ranked voting. It's nice to being able to vote your values without worrying that it might help throw the election to a total creep on the first ballot because you did.

[Arthur_Frain]

9. I wonder how long we get to keep ranked choice?

Pretty sure they’ll get that initiative on the ballot. Hope most of us don’t want to go back to the tyranny of the noisiest.

Murkowski is so bullet proof up here that it’s pathetic. Yes she lost a primary to Joe Miller (tea party was kind of the precursor to the maga movement) but won the general as a write in handily.

If there was one thing after money that we could get out of politics I would wish we could stop voting for people just because they have name recognition. Sarah might actually have beaten Mary last time if Nick Begich hadn’t been in the race, his name is as big as Murkowski up here.

[Walleye]

2. They are "an institute in a powerful death penalty"

[Lovie777]

3. Well..........................................

there is that saying "everything shithole touches dies".

[Sky Jewels]

5. ... and then gets buried in an unmarked grave on a Trump golf course.

[pandr32]

7. You have a way with words.

I relished your description of the RP in a "death spiral, boiling itself down to a toxic sludge." This conjured up some Chemistry class experiments, kitchen disasters, and a few old horror movies. Nice!

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Thanks. You brought to mind an elementary school science class I was in...

Our teacher was trying to demonstrate how water can be "purified" through evaporation and then condenscati0on. She put all kinds of gunk in water in a beaker and then heated it, with lots of glass tubing to gather the steam and cool it so that clear water dripped down into another beaker at the other end. Only problem was that all of her fittings were too tight, so the steam built up and .first beaker literally exploded and the gunk shot up to the ceiling and began dripping down from it. That was a ,memorable experiment! The stain from the ooze remained on the ceiling for the whole year.

[pandr32]

12. OMG that must have been a scare!

I'll bet that ceiling stain caused some chuckles.
Thanks for the story!

[wryter2000]

11. I wonder

How many people consider themselves Republicans these days as opposed to how many are Democrats.

[Initech]

13. The GOP has been replaced with a cult run by a news network.

The lunatics (those most loyal to the cult) are currently running the asylum and the rest of America has had enough of their nonsense. We'll definitely see which side people are on when the dust finally settles from this election.