They may stay home
Pollster John Zogby's analysis of the latest Reuters/Zogby polling indicates that born-again Christians polled 15-20% less likely to vote Republican in races currently lead by Democrats, but that Democrats are not getting that bump. Read more of his analysis in Undecided America - Key to Control of Congress?
For Democrats or Independents who are trying unseat Republican
incumbents to succeed, they must find a way to bring in those voters, either by convincing them that they share enough values to be worthy voting for, or that voting for a Republican will ensure the status quo.
Conversely, non-incumbent Republicans need to convince those voting blocks that they are not part of the problem, that they share voter values and would go to Washington to restore the values of the Republican Party.
Comments
Anecdotal evidence of the validity of Zogby's analysis came in the form of Republicans calling in to C-Span's Wash. Journal program this morning saying they aren't voting for Republican incumbents in their district.
One of them was an irate Christian Right who was livid over the "neo-cons" hijacking her party of family values and moral integrity.
Another commented she was staying home, because Democrats are no better, and Republicans have lost their credibility to represent her fiscal conservative views.
Posted by: David R. Remer | October 10, 2006 7:36 PM
IMO that's what you get when you try to hijack a party for your narrow agenda.
Posted by: Zebster | October 10, 2006 8:03 PM
That's what happened after Nixon. Lot of Republicans stayed home. If only they'd get out and vote for some challengers, rather than allow any irresponsible incumbents to keep getting re-elected. I'm afraid this election is shaping up to just be a huge shift to the OTHER party, isn't likely to accomplish much (if anything). What would have some real impact is to oust a LOT of irresponsible incumbents. That's somehting incumbents will notice. That's something that might encourage them to finally pass some badly-needed, common-sense reforms they refuse to pass (e.g. campaign finance reform, election reform, restrict Gerrymandering, tax reform, budget reform, monetary system reform, etc. ).
Posted by: d.a.n | October 12, 2006 10:39 PM