The
Ocala Star-Banner
writes about a little-discussed phenomenon in advance of
Tuesday's Florida primary vote:
Whether voting or waiting, however, the faithful within the
major parties are a dwindling lot.The overall percentage of voters identifying with the Democratic
and Republican parties — in Marion County and the state as a whole
— has ebbed to its lowest point at any time in recent memory.
[...]Nearly one in four voters in Florida is registered as something
other than a Democrat or a Republican, or not affiliated with any
party at all, according to state Division of Elections records.In Marion County, the rate is about one in every five.
Headed into Tuesday's Republican primary, the percentage of
election-year voters in Florida who identify themselves with the
GOP is at one of the lowest points since 1994, the last year of
election-year voter registration data posted on the DOE's
website.
I'll say it
again–Republicans bleeding market share in this ridiculously
favorable market is a bungle of truly historic proportions. And
let's give it up for Paul Truesdell, chairman of the Florida Whig
Party:
"Each day, more Americans are coming to the conclusion that
duopolistic politics is more about profiteering through a spoils
system disguised by a byzantine bureaucracy than maintaining
government by the people rather than of the people," Truesdell said
in an email."What we have are always-competing medusa-octopui that spin the
media and general public opinion nonstop for the sole purpose of
controlling the purse strings."
Read the
whole article. Nick Gillespie and I on the duopoly metaphor
here.
Link to the pictured book
here.