Rasmussen Poll and Ann Landers Each Show People are Flocking AWAY From Democratic Party

President Obama and the progressive wing of the party who dominate congress, has made identifying ones self as a Democrat is not as popular as it used to be. Witness the letter I pulled out of the Newspaper today:

Dear Ann Landers,

I lost my job at McDonalds last month for sleeping with the bosses daughter (I swear she looked 18). My parents are life-long progressive Democrats who live in the suburbs of San Francisco. My Father and Mother have recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana, distribution of Cocaine, as well as Heroin.  They are currently dependent on my two sisters, who are prostitutes in Las Vegas.

I have two brothers, one who is currently serving a life sentence without parole for the rape & murder of a teenage boy in 1994, the other currently being held in Sing Sing on charges of incest with his three children.

I have recently become engaged to marry a former Thai prostitute who lives on the street. She is also a part time "working girl" in a Brothel, however, her time there is limited as she has recently been infected with an HIV. 

My problem is this: I love my fiancee and look forward to bringing her into the family and of course I want to be totally honest with her. So, how should I tell her about my parents being progressive Democrats?

OK, so maybe the letter is not real, but the numbers announced by Rasmussen today are.  It shows the number of people identifying themselves as Democrats at a seven year low and that drop has happened every since Barack Obama was elected.

Currently, 35.5% of American adults still admit that they are Democrats. It is still 1.5% more than the GOP but last December the number was. That’s down from 36.0 a month ago and from 37.8% in October. Last December the numbers were 41.6% for the Democrats and 32.8% for the GOP an 8.8% difference. Growing faster than the republicans are the "other" category which includes independents. Other grew by 5 percentage points from 25.6 to 30.6%

Prior to December, the lowest total ever recorded for Democrats was 35.9%, a figure that was reached twice in 2005. See the History of Party Trends from January 2004 to the present.


The number of Republicans inched up by a point in December to 34.0%. That’s the highest total for Republicans since December 2007, just before the 2008 presidential campaign season began.

..Between November 2004 and 2006, the Democratic advantage in partisan identification grew by 4.5 percentage points. That foreshadowed the Democrats' big gains in the 2006 midterm elections. The gap grew by another 1.5 percentage points between November 2006 and 2008 heading into the election of President Obama.


The gap between the parties is now very similar to the gap in November 2004, when George W. Bush won reelection. However, at that time, both parties had more support, and fewer were unaffiliated with either party. The number of unaffiliateds typically declines as major elections draw near.

Keep in mind that figures reported in this article are for all adults, not likely voters which is Rasmussen usually tracks. Republicans are a bit more likely to participate in elections than Democrats.

When Obama was inaugurated last January, Democrats had a seven-point lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot. Republicans now have a five-point advantage. That change has been brought about partly by the declining number of Democrats and partly by the fact that unaffiliated voters are now more supportive of the GOP.

None of this means that the GOP will make gains in the upcoming mid-term elections. What it does reflect is that Americans are not happy with the President's radical progressive agenda. The opening is there for the GOP, but they have a bit to go on how to position the party.