Numbers affliated with both major political parties decline

[AnOhioan]

Number of Republicans in U.S. Hits New Low, Number of Democrats Also Decline

For the fourth straight month, the number of people identifying themselves as Republicans has decreased. For the third straight month, the number of people identifying themselves as Democrats has also decreased.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 15,000 adults in May found that just 30.8% now say they're Republicans. That's down slightly from last month and down more than six percentage points from the GOP peak of 37.3% during Election 2004. The number of Republicans has been falling fairly steadily since the middle of 2005.

However, the survey also found that the number of people identifying themselves as Democrats has fallen to its lowest level in seventeen months (since January 2006). Democrats gained about two percentage points of support during 2006 and peaked at 38.0% in December of last year. Since actually taking control of Congress, Democrats have given back most of those gains. Today, 36.3% say they belong to Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record)'s party.

More at http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20070601/pl_rasmussen/partyaffiliation20070601

[Double T]

1. This is a wake up call the the Democrats in Congress..........

why aren't YOU listening to the voters?

[thunder rising]

2. The problem is that they read this a needing to be more like Bush :-)

[Nite Owl]

3. How very true

they think they need to move more to that unknown middle. They don't want to see what the problem really is and it isn't moving toward the Leiberman model.

[Double T]

4. They read this as a need to move more to the (I) side; BOTH the............

Democrats and the rethugs have failed their constituents.

[blindpig]

5. Food for thought

Politics is dominated by two political parties. Do those two parties reflect the population accurately, represent their interests effectively? In other words, are 45% of the people represented by one of the two parties, and 45% represented by the other, and then never mind the 10%?

I think not. If not, what percentage of the population IS represented by the two parties do you think?

Are elected officials the power in the country? Could they be?

To get elected to office, is not approval by the national media, approval by corporate money people, and approval by party hierarchy required?

How can this accurately be called "democracy?"

Is the entire possible range of political ideas and programs available as "choices" for the electorate?

I think not. I think a very narrow range of ideas and programs is available, even to discuss or consider let alone "choose."

Since support of corporate money people, national media, and party hierarchy are required to be considered let alone elected to public office, is it not reasonable to assume that those people define the range of permissible ideas and programs?

Within the range of permissible political ideas, are the best interests of the majority of the people included? Is there any overlap at all?

I think not.

Is it in any way possible to work with the national media, or within the party, or within corporations to change this so that the people's interests are represented?

I think not.

[RestoreGore]

6. Nancy Pelosi's party?

I didn;t know any one person owned a party.

[blindpig]

7. We can do better than this

Researchers asked staunch party members from both sides to evaluate information that threatened their preferred candidate prior to the 2004 Presidential election. The subjects' brains were monitored while they pondered.

(snip)

The brain imaging revealed a consistent pattern. Both Republicans and Democrats consistently denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate but detected contradictions in the opposing candidate.

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060124_political_decisions.html

And that's just the rank & file. The people calling the shots don't have this problem, they are very clear on what they want, and if that's what you want it's purely coincidental.

[blindpig]

8. kick

[mdmc]

9. how come you have a 0 post count?