Monday, February 1, 2021

GOP fallout

Sources told Reuters that as many as 60 former officials [from George W. Bush's administration] would leave the party in the coming days, with at least one also citing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) promotion of conspiracy theories as a reason for their exit.

“If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back,” said Rosario Marin, a former U.S. Treasury official, told the news service. “Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.”

  The Hill
In the week from Jan. 6 through Jan. 12, about 4,600 Republicans changed their party status in Colorado, according to a CPR News analysis. There was no comparable effect with any other party.

[...]

The number of people changing parties spiked immediately after the Capitol breach. The same phenomenon is playing out nationwide. News outlets documented about 6,000 defections from the party in North Carolina, 10,000 in Pennsylvania and 5,000 in Arizona.

[...]

[T]he vast majority — about 4,200 people — switched from Republican to unaffiliated status, accelerating a trend that has affected both parties in Colorado in recent years.

[...]

The thousands of newly unaffiliated voters can still support Republican candidates and participate in the party's primaries. And both parties have seen registered members switch to unaffiliated in large numbers for years.

But interviews and data analysis show how the tumultuous post-election period has created a new split within the Republican Party.

For some right-of-center voters [...] the violence at the Capitol was simply the final straw. They described an increasingly strained relationship with the GOP, with some citing the rise of Sarah Palin more than a decade ago as the first sign that the party was focusing on culture wars instead of fiscal conservatism.

[...]

Other newly former Republicans had the opposite reaction: They cut ties with the party because they felt its leaders had abandoned Trump by blaming him for the riot and refusing to overturn the election.

  NPR
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday announced the formation of a new PAC aimed at challenging the Republican Party’s acceptance of former President Trump.

“This is no time for silence, not after the last month, not after the past few years. Someone needs to tell the truth. Someone needs to say what history needs to hear. So here I am. The Republican Party has lost its way,” Kinzinger said in a video posted on country1st.com, the website for his new PAC.

[...]

Kinzinger was one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol breach and has become an outspoken critic of the former president. He has since said his vote has led to him being isolated among his party and has said his decision may be “terminal” to his political career.

  The Hill
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No comments: