> Have you met the republican party? Their entire base lives off fear.

First off not all in the republican party can be characterized this way. You are painting with very broad strokes. Many turn the republican party because they are the closest they can get to their economic beliefs.

> It's not fear of death or injury, but fear of "other", of change, of being marginalized.

Do you honestly believe this? Do you get your views of republicans from reddit and articles you read about people talking about fox news?

> First off not all in the republican party can be characterized this way.

Duh. Do I really need to preface every statement I make with "this is a generalization that doesn't apply to every single person" or can I just assume that you have some intelligence and don't assume everyone speaks in absolute terms and that when I said base, that quite obviously doesn't mean everyone.

> You are painting with very broad strokes.

That's rather the point of generalizing; it's useful.

> Many turn the republican party because they are the closest they can get to their economic beliefs.

Hopefully they're sobering up and realizing how ridiculous that choice was.

> Do you honestly believe this?

I observe this, it's not a matter of belief, I live in a red state and see it constantly.

> Do you get your views of republicans from reddit and articles you read about people talking about fox news?

I see, it couldn't possibly be because I know a lot of republicans, it must be Fox news. I live in Arizona, practically the center of republican crazy these days; I don't have to make shit up.

+1 to gnaritas side here. I'm in the military, home of record is Texas, grew up in Kansas and Nebraska (what got me to read this thread), spent 95% of my adult life south of the Mason-Dixon line. Not all Republicans are crazy, but the disease of "Republican crazy" is rampant. See XKCD #1127 for another perspective. https://xkcd.com/1127/

Also did the military. And yes, not all republicans are crazy, but most crazies are republicans.

What is an "economic belief"? Seeing how broken our financial system and ways of thinking about it are, I take it it's some kind of religion, including all the baggage that comes with such an approach?

> "Many turn the republican party because they are the closest they can get to their economic beliefs."

So did you choose the word "Beliefs" intentionally to evoke an evidence-light position?

Because Republican Party economic reality is further from those stated beliefs than Democratic Party economic reality.

"They kinda come close to my views w/r/t one small aspect of national policy" is a pretty terrible reason to vote for a party. If you're correct that many citizens vote this way, you'd all be better off withholding from participation until you can fix your electoral system.

Relevant: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/open-minded-conservat...

Supposedly based on an actual study - I'll let you vet the sources ;)

Not relevant, I live in Arizona and lack of contact with conservatives is not an issue; hell, I wish it were.

Not a rant, just an observation: Republicans aren't conservative. They are military-industrial socialists. That's why things like Fox get annoying: they go around pointing fingers at the others, yet push out their own stimulus packages (via military spending increases) and their own flavor of socialism.

A lot of "true" conservatives have left the party.

FTR, I don't classify myself as either liberal or conservative; I've been a member of the Democratic party and the Republican party, and left them both. I can't stand either of them. And I really can't stand hypocrisy.

These true conservatives might have left the party, but they're still voting for the party because I don't see any big shift in representatives yet that mirrors this big exodus you speak of. I know many such ex-republicans, they all still voted Romney and republican despite their vocal protests of the party.

Given that Romney got a lower turnout than McCain, it certainly seems that some number of people have left the party, or are at least witholding support for the time being.

I'll grant you that; but abstaining doesn't help much. They should be splitting the party and separating the real conservatives from the religious right.

That's going to take time- plus I'm not sure they will attain critical mass for a party to succeed. I bet most self-professed 'conservatives' would argue that Republicans are conservative. It seems to be a religion or something.

That's not all too different from Democrats who criticize Obama w.r.t. drone warfare, whistle blower prosecution, etc, but vote for him anyhow.

It's much different; we criticize Obama but don't consider him a DINO and want to kick him out of the party. Republicans tend to eat their own, they want ideological purity in a way Democrats never have. Democrats tolerate ideological differences within the party and within congressional votes vastly more than republicans do.

>It's not fear of death or injury, but fear of "other", of change, of being marginalized.

Good lord. How old are you that you haven't realize this "fear of other" stuff is just academia bullshit?