In Pennsylvania, Fed-up Democrats flip for Trump: Massive Shift in voter Reg to GOP

[amborin]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-democrats-20160424-snap-htmlstory.html

Together the result is one of the most sizable shifts of partisan allegiance ever seen in Pennsylvania: 61,500 Democrats have become Republicans so far this year, part of a 145,000 jump in Republican registrations since the fall 2015 election, according to state figures analyzed by both parties. It’s more new Republicans than in the previous four years combined.

The onslaught has helped make Trump the favorite heading into Tuesday’s primary, chipping away at the Democratic stronghold and helping put Pennsylvania, which voted for Obama twice, in play in the November presidential election.

[liberalnarb]

1. Makes me ashamed of my state

[jcgoldie]

2. Not sure I see how...

How is that a pro-Bernie story?

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. They know Bernie's going to lose, so now they hope Hillary loses to Trump

A sad state of affairs among the self-professed "Real democrats."

[amborin]

4. after June 7, huge numbers of CA Dems will leave

“Over the last 30 odd years, Democrats have moved to the right and the right has moved into the mental hospital. So what we have is one perfectly good party for hedge fund managers, credit card companies, banks, defense contractors, big agriculture and the pharmaceutical lobby... That's the Democrats. And they sit across the aisle from a small group of religious lunatics, flat-earthers and civil war re-enactors who mostly communicate by AM radio and call themselves the Republicans and who actually worry that Obama is a socialist. Socialist? He's not even a liberal.”
― Bill Maher

[BernieforPres2016]

5. Fuck Bill Maher

He's a Hillary shill commenting on the Dems as a good party for the rich as if he thinks that's a bad thing?

[amborin]

12. he is a hillary shill

my husband was watching his show the other day and said
he was bashing Bernie

[Sheepshank]

14. nope...he's always been for Bernie

you just three a Bernie supporter under the bus......how wonderfully delicious.

[Stallion]

19. He Is CLEARLY a Bernie Fan-Just Wants to Make Sure Democrats Vote for Nominee

nm

[Sheepshank]

20. He made that very clear

Bill is pretty disgusted at the Bernie or Bust mentality.

He drew a clear distinction between Hillary and Trump and said as clear as clear can be, (Paraphrasong) "if you sit out the election, if you don't vote for the DEM, you and the nation will get Trump." Couldn't be more clear.

[amborin]

23. my husband watched his show the other day

he bashed Bernie, ridiculed single payer in VT, etc.....

[jcgoldie]

9. Well thats a completely unsubstantiated opinion

Which incidentally has nothing to do with Pennsylvanians switching parties. In case it didn't register the story you linked is about primary voters... meaning they weren't much inspired by your guy either.

[Skwmom]

6. That is why Clinton urged his buddy to run. They needed a republican with a populist message.

They needed to split the populist vote to protect the corporatist candidate.

[Katashi_itto]

7. Not unexpected. The writing has been on the wall for a while. It's just being ignored.

[MgtPA]

8. I remember in 2008 a lot of Republicans switched to Democrats ahead of the Democratic primary

so they could vote against Obama. Maybe they're just "going home"?

[lagomorph777]

10. I considered voting for Trump as sabotage to the GOP

we have open primaries here.

In the end I had to vote for who I really want: Bernie. But I could believe lots of people are voting for Trump in the primary as sabotage.

[JoePhilly]

11. Trump pumping.

[JaneyVee]

13. Hillary is beating Trump in Georgia, Mississippi, and Arizona.

[tabasco]

17. LMFAO!

Nobody in their right mind believes that Hillary Clinton will win any of those states.

[JaneyVee]

18. Seriously, check the recent polls.

[tabasco]

21. I stand by my previous post. n/t

[KingFlorez]

15. You do know that those people probably vote Republican in general elections?

Pennsylvania is a place that has lots of registered Democrats who vote Republican all the time and at this point it makes sense for them to actual switch their registration to Republicans. Those people wouldn't vote for no Bernie Sanders.

What will happen is that moderate Republicans and independents in the Philadelphia suburbs will vote Democratic in November to counter Trump.

[tabasco]

16. There is delusional talk of a Clinton landslide and re-taking the Senate!

I saw a fact-free puff piece circulating on DU discussing how Democrats were poised to retake the Senate and deal the republicans a heavy blow in this year's general election. In fact, the opposite is much more likely, as republican fascists rally behind their "strong leader" and Clinton-fatigue causes Democrats to stay home or vote for Trump.

[pampango]

22. "... conservative-leaning Democrats began shifting away from the party in this faded industrial

Rust Belt."

Others moved abruptly, inspired by Trump and fed up with a party they say no longer speaks their language. "... the daughter of a steel worker, who twice voted for President Obama but says she is “over” the Democrats' political correctness."

The mostly white electorate here comes from an earlier iteration of the American melting pot – Eastern Europeans, Italians, Irish – who have little resemblance to the newer Democratic coalition of young people, minorities and urban white-collar professionals. Many families have stayed here for generations, as the nation’s economy and demographic trends have moved on.

The more she watched Clinton this time, the less she liked, sensing an opportunist politician moving too far to the left to keep pace with the popularity of rival Bernie Sanders.

They were impressed by Trump’s willingness to talk critically about immigrants and others in a way that other politicians wouldn’t dare. “The silent majority’s been kept quiet by all the political correctness in the world,” she said, reading from some notes she had jotted in a notebook to organize her thoughts.

These "conservative-leaning Democrats" don't seem happy with Hillary "moving too far to the left" or with Democrats' reluctance to be "critical" of immigrants, minorities, gays, etc.

I hope we don't sink to criticizing immigrants, gays and other minorities just to appeal to "conservative-leaning Democrats".