In Washington state, politicians can apparently freely decide what label they want to use for their party affiliation on ballots — you know, like “Democrat” or “Republican”. Only the Republicans are all running away from the label “Republican”. I wonder why?
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
How astonishing…
The dems should change their name to the Liberal Democrats, that would soon put a stop to that. Mind you, it would also be a lie since the Dems are little better than Repugs anyway.
“Prefers GOP Party.”
Isn’t that a little like going to an “ATM Machine” and entering your “PIN Number” to get out a little “Cash Money”?
The only problem that I see with this is that the people who are likely to be fooled by this are the ones dumb enough to keep voting for Republicans.
Might this be a first step towards proportional representation? (I wish.)
hmmm — isn’t this a meme-duplication? Now the GOP and the Republans are free to evolve their separate ways. Shades of “On The Origin of Parties”, perhaps.
They should change it to Social Democrats, and they should change their policies to fit that. (One can dream…)
Perhaps we’re seeing the start of speciation, Sili. I wonder if a similar thing is happening on the east coast. An example of a ring species?
David M. @#6 – amen to that. What we have now are Neoliberal Democrats (Neoliberal in the international understanding of that term).
Unfortunately, even many European Social Democrats are SDs in name only (Germany, etc); they’ve learned to be good Eurocrats, pushing down those Neoliberal poison pills…
It seems like only a decade ago when Democratic politicians were doing that out here. You’d see yard signs all over the place with no party affiliation mentioned.
It’s funny, though, that it took Republican control of the news, not to mention all the think tanks, talk radio, etc., to make the Democratic brand look bad. All we had to do to sully the Republican brand was let them run things for a few years.
The name changing not so much, but the reason the changing can happen is a little in that direction. For people not familiar with Washington’s system, this year we’re switching the primaries so that people can vote for who ever they want, and the top two regardless of party will be on the ballot for the general election. There’s been lots of freaking out that this could mean having an election between two people of the same party, but to me it also seems more likely that we’ll start seeing match ups of a Green vs Democrat or Republican vs Libertarian. Personally I think this is a good way for the power of Democratic and Republican party to be spread a little more to the minor partys, which is exactly why they went to court to try and prevent the system from getting implemented.
Self-loathing is a terrible thing. But in their case I can understand it. We loathe them, too.
Yay for minority governments. In Canada, that’s the only thing keeping the entire country from collapsing to match Harper’s IQ.
MikeM @3
LOL, my sentiments exactly, but then you read your balance on an LCD display.
Brownian, I really don’t think that Harper is dumb. He’s a jerk, that’s certain, and a fairly incompetent manager, but not dumb.
Hey Canadians, go and elect a new government already. Stéphane Dion’s not *that* bad. Harper was supposed to be a temp!
From my background (California), Washington is a little strange. California has a history of closed primaries. You must be a registered member of the party to get a (for example) Democratic Party ballot. You’re affiliation must be registered 30 days before the primary. An interesting caveat though is that only Federal, Governor, Lt. Governor, State and Legislative district offices are partisan. State Attorney General, Judges, Comptroller, City Mayors, County Supervisors, Councilman, and Dogcatchers are non-partisan. Those are not ballot party affiliated. That system came from the reform days of Hiram Johnson to weaken Party power. It also provided the rise of the initiative process.
Washington state had a different system, for which I do not know the historical origins. Many more elected offices are party affiliated. At primary time though you could say I want a Democratic party ballot, a Republican party ballot, or even a Pharyngula party ballot. You then voted for the candidates on that party ballot. As Dem. and Rep. initiated lawsuits attempting to change that the legislature was forced to come up with a compromise that fit SCOTUS ruling. We now have a top two primary. Gregoire, Rossi, Smith, Jones, and Cthulu all compete for the top two Governor spots. If nobody gets 50% another vote ensues. I think I like the CA system, but most of the people I talk to in WA like the old WA system. Few are fans of the new system. We’ll see what happens. Federal office runs are little changed (I think). In my congressional district it should still be between Darcy (Dem) and Dave (Rep). Dave Reichert being one of the dimmer bulbs in the Rethuglican (is my bias now showing?) Party will this time probably lose to either Darcy Burner or Cthulu.
An interesting note: If in 1988 Yakima County per their party primary winners had defined who would run for president on the national tickets it would have been a race between Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson. I left Yakima County in 1990.
These comments are from my very flawed memory, anyone is welcome to clean up any errors.
For those who don’t know the history, the race for Washington governor this year is a grudge match between “GOP” Rossi and Democratic incumbent Christine Gregoire, who narrowly beat Rossi four years ago. In fact the early results in ’04 had Rossi winning by a small margin, but a mandatory recount reversed that and put Gregoire in office. At which point what do you suppose Rossi did? Concede gracefully? Of course not. He held a press conference complaining that the election had been stolen, and went to court to try to get the recount overturned, ballots thrown out, election workers fired, you name it. (Remind you of anyone?) He failed miserably at that, making “Republican” pretty much synonymous with “sore loser” in Washington state politics.
Gregoire, in contrast, showed a lot of class by staying out of the whole imbroglio and basically saying, Fine, you guys do what you have to do, but meanwhile I’m going to go govern.
[laughs uproariously and points at Republicans] Ha ha!
The present Repub party should dissolve and be reconstituted, perhaps as a TRUE conservative party. It would be a nice change
mcmillan @ #10: I’m one of those afraid we’ll see only Repubs get past the primary, but that’s because I live in Eastern Washington…
Ken @ #15: If I recall the old system correctly, for the primaries all the candidates were on one ballot, so there was no way to guarantee that members of the Democratic party were selecting the Democratic candidate, for example. The Democratic, Libertarian, and Republican parties brought suit against the state to get rid of that system. Upon their success, the separate ballot system was introduced; you didn’t have to prove party membership to get the ballot of your choice, but you also couldn’t split your primary vote. I can’t remember if the “top two” came out of the Legislature or a ballot initiative, but I’m not for it, because I think we’ll just see further entrenchment of the R’s on the dry side of the state and the D’s on the wet…
GOP Party. ATM Machine. Well.
One of my personal favorites – ink pen
OT: Poll to crash, for those interested:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-council-motto-2077765-study-trust
Should Rancho Santa Margarita display “In God We Trust” at City Hall?
Yes – 71%
No – 29%
Total Votes: 105
Don’t you just hate it when you’ve been shouting an item from the rooftop, and nobody listens until a bigger gun opens up.
http://breckenblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/washington-state-republican-party.html
I think I hit all the salient points.
I wouldn’t want to be called a Republican either.
I mean, who wants to be associated with the party of George Bush, Larry Craig and that three ring circus they called a Primary.
PZ, have you forgotten that we had the Independant-Republican party a few years ago when the Republicans were at a low point. Perhaps it will revive after the next election cycle.
Also, the unusal name for the Democratic party here in Minnesota is the DFL which is short for Democratic-Farmer-Labor party which I don’t think exists in any other state. Try saying DFL to someone in Rhode Island and you’ll get a questioning stare.
Wasn’t it Shakespeare who said, “A rose by any other name.”
Perhaps the Republicans in Washington are hoping to be less odorous or is that odious!
Stéphane Dion’s not *that* bad.
I’m still voting NDP, you Grit shill. ;-)
hmmm. Maybe I’ll register as DFL here in NY and see what happens.
An obvious sign of the End-Times.
NEWSFLASH: Republicans deny their identity in droves!
benjdm, #21. When properly translated out of the jumbled mess of the minds of those who love to repeat it, the actual meaning of that phrase turns out, “In Trust, We’re God”.
Rancho Santa Margarita City Hall Poll:
193 votes – 65% yes, 35% no.
It’s a-movin’…
I have always wondered this.
Why are you asked your party affiliation on a voter registration card? Isn’t that like telling them who you are going to vote for before the election? Isn’t it supposed to be a secret ballot?
(I understand that you aren’t required to vote for your party affiliation, but most people will)
Here in Canada, I basically just have to confirm my address, that’s all.
The present Repub party should dissolve and be reconstituted, perhaps as a TRUE conservative party. It would be a nice change
Just curious, when has the Republican party been a “true” conservative party? Corrupt, certainly, but conservative? I mean go back into the 1870s, you have the massive corruption of the Grant Administration. Not to be outdone, you have Harding, followed closely by the gross mismanagement of Coolidge. Then add in Nixon, Reagan, and the current bozo in chief, and you have a nifty combination of corruption and incompetence, but I certainly don’t see conservatism. Perhaps Hoover, but that was probably the worst time in the nation’s history to be conservative.
Why are you asked your party affiliation on a voter registration card?
Not all states do this and most that ask for party affiliation also have the option of “no party” or “non affiliated.” The states that require this are usually states that conduct closed primaries. California, Arizona, and a few others only allow registered Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary, registered Republicans to vote in the Republican primary. Other states have open primaries. There are arguments for and against both.
#31
I know that they have fond memories of great Republican presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight David Eisenhower (?). Some questionable Democrats in our past have also include William Jennings Bryan, Grover Cleveland, James Buchanan, Lyndon Johnson. My favorite conservative Republican would have to be Teddy Roosevelt, if only for his creation of the National Park system.
I recall when the Republican party in Washington lost one of the elections in the ’90s to Gary Locke when they were running a woman for Governor: the loss was attributed in the local talk radio to the GOP not being right wing enough!! The Washington State GOP also gave the 1988 caucus vote to Pat Robertson. What a bunch of loons.
If you watch the Faux news piece linked to in the story, you may notice that it ends with the Rethuglican candidate claiming that his obfuscation of party affiliation being pointed to by democrats is insulting the intelligence of the voter. And then the shill ends on a “lighthearted” note about how it’s all much ado aboot nuttin.
Way to give the liar and the huckster the last words.
“All we had to do to sully the Republican brand was let them run things for a few years”
Unfortunately, on the balance of the evidence, I’d have to say that was one rather expensive piece of name sullying.
I hate the GOP, but how can I vote for Democrats when all they seem interested in is raping my wallet because I studied hard and worked hard to become a successful person? Fuck that.
And spare me the “making sacrifices” speech that I always get. I probably paid more in taxes last year than most commenters here even made, so stuff that sentiment deep into your rectal cavity. Vote with *your* pocketbook, not mine.
*I’m* supposed to make sacrifices, but my fellow citizens can continue to make their shitbrain life choices day in and day out, and the politicians get to spend like a baboons in heat spew jizz while the lot of you self described “liberals” cheer them on like a pack of loons.
That’s the part I don’t get. You’ve seen the bullshit of the last 7.5 years, and the erosion of rights. Hell, if you read any history, you’ve seen the endless deadliness and arbitrariness of centralized power of any kind. And you think it’ll all get magically better if juuuuuuuuust the right person gets in. What suckers!
Have you forgotten the cheering after the Dems retook Congress? How things were going to change? LOL! Right.
I may be an ornery SOB, but at least *my* atheism extends to cover the political realm, unlike many of you ideological saps. Skeptics? Hah! You’re as faithful and deluded in political matters as any kid shedding tears over at Jesus Camp. Fools.
N, what do you mean by “life choices”? And how are you able to tell what “life choices” someone has made?
And you are free to move to some tax-free capitalist utopia like the United Arab Emirates or Somalia, so why are you whining about all the taxes you have to pay?
And why not look at where your tax money goes some time? Do you think that retirees are evil parasitic losers? Or soldiers? Or Treasury-bill holders? Or everybody who drives on our wonderful socialist roads?
I don’t think the party he was in defines Teddy’s political leanings; I’ve heard him described as a Progressive, but not a conservative.
I probably paid more in taxes last year than most commenters here even made, so stuff that sentiment deep into your rectal cavity. Vote with *your* pocketbook, not mine.
Psssst – the Democrats aren’t the ones who have been in charge for the last 8 years, racking up bills of almost insurmountable debt that has to be paid for. Anyone who thinks that Republicans are still the party of fiscal responsibility hasn’t been paying much attention this century.
God…commenters like “N” make me realize that MY best candidate has sadly passed away (George Carlin). What a sad, deluded tool.
Nonetheless, I agree with Carlin on one thing: voting Democrat or Republican matters little. The Owners don’t care. And no, N, you are not an “owner” no matter what you think.
And no, N, I am not impressed by your income last year. Top arms merchants and drug lords earn far more money than you do, and they pay nothing. So…you should become a drug criminal or mafia don you so can be even more self righteous-and not pay any taxes, either.
Anyway, back to the useless Democrat Party. It doesn’t matter:
The Democrats throughout history are almost as bad-or worse, to be honest. Remember the Prim Pastor Woodrow Wilson, whose intervention in Europe despite the express disagreement of the American electorate helped create many of the horros of the 20th century. And, don’t forget Hiroshima Harry T, Bay of Pigs Johnny of Camelot, Tonkin Golf Johnson, and my favorite, the Sainted Jimmy of East Timor,Al Qaeda,and the Contras.
A pox on BOTH their houses. Given recent shennanigans of our Democratic Party, they should be hiding their name, too.
Geezoolie…my typing sucks.
I think it does matter.
If anyone doesn’t think things would of been different had Gore been president during 9/11, is lying to themselves.
raping my wallet – N
I may be an ornery SOB – N
In this case at least, I’d guess “ornery SOB” translates as “misogynistic psychopath”.
That’s used by people who pronounce “pen” as “pin”. They also say “safety pin”.
Chinese is chock full of such constructions, for the same kind of historical reasons.
Woodrow Wilson, whose intervention in Europe despite the express disagreement of the American electorate helped create many of the horros of the 20th century. – Brian
Without disagreeing with your assessment of the Democrat record in foreign policy or Wilson in particular (and Wilson was as brutal as any in his interventions in Latin America), I wonder about this. First, American sentiment surely changed markedly after Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfae, and the Zimmerman telegram came to light. AFAIK there were no scientific opinion polls at the time, but it’s possible Wilson had majority support by the time he declared war. Second, what would have followed if he had kept out of WWI? Almost certainly, Germany would have won – it came close in Spring 1918 as it was. It would probably have been able to suppress the Bolsheviks and plant a puppet regime in Russia, thus reaching a position of unprecedented dominance of Eurasia by any power in history. A second great war, pitting Germany against the USA and Britain, would still have been highly likely once Germany had built up its sea-power – and Germany might well have won it. It’s arguable that the real error was in failing either to make the League of Nations work, or alternatively, to follow the French strategy of breaking Germany up and keeping it disunited indefinitely, which Wilson blocked.
I’ve yet to meet a Democrat… every one of them claims to be “independent”… guess neither group is really proud of their leaders or current stance on issues (& I don’t mean their rhetoric)… let’s get real… party affiliation is what will drive this nation into the ground.
If I remember correctly, Canadian conservatives took a couple of elections to replace their liberal conservative (the PC’s) with a more conservative party… they endured the “wasted vote” syndrome for a number of years till they finally got what they really wanted… I suggest the “Independents”, “Libertarians”, etc. bite the bullet & vote for the Nader, Forbes, Bob Barr types for as long as it takes.