Just before the midterm elections, I got to exchanging stories with a few long-time acquaintances about our political histories, and two of them acknowledged that they used to be Republicans. This was a bit of a surprise since they certainly aren’t Republicans now. This got me to thinking. So, on a leftist email list I’ve participated at for a few years, I brought up this conversation. Over the course of a week or so, some 75 people talked about their political pasts.
The majority of us are activists, with only a couple younger than 30, and three in their early 80s. Several said they had been Republicans in their youth, but wised up quickly. Two of them said, however, that they hadn’t switched until they were older. One switched to being a Democrat-leaning independent at age 45.
Since then, as a Democrat since forever, I’ve continued pondering this party-changing phenomenon. A couple of people had switched because of Nixon, and one because of Reagan, and one because of Bill Clinton. They all talked policy, not personality. As I am always curious about Daily Kos demographics, and how these have changed over the many years I’ve been loitering around this site, I decided why not ask y'all. Just how many ex-Republicans are here?
Founder Kos himself used to be a Republican, although that didn’t last long, and I know that a few others here with relatively well-known names were also in the GOP at one time or another. But is this rare or common? So, I’ve put together a little poll. As always, it doesn’t have a choice for every single permutation. That’s what the comment thread is for.
If you are an ex-Republican, how long ago did you leave the party? And what have you become? A Democrat? What kind of Democrat? Conservative, moderate, liberal, libertarian, green, radical? That last is a question I have been asked frequently over the years of my political activism by people who think a "radical Democrat" is an oxymoron. If you’ve switched, could the Republicans woo you back? What would it take for you to return to the fold?
Have you persuaded anybody else to follow your path?
Perhaps the most important question of all, especially to those of us who have never been Republicans, what do these conversions mean for the Democrats ideologically speaking in the age of Trump? Does it mean a watering-down of Democratic principles? Which principles? Should every camel that sticks its nose into the Big Tent be welcomed? Or are Democrats, progressive Democrats at any rate, going to regret the entry of so many new arrivals?
Take the poll