Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter Changes to a Democrat

[The Ghost of RubangB]

halogamer1989 said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:
If he stays Independent, this won't make too much of a difference. But it's great publicity for Democrats and bad publicity for Republicans. It's just more news about the Republican party shrinking into a regional party, and chasing out its own members. That's an image that the Republican party needs to fight, but they seem to be tripping over themselves trying to find out how.

They really need to get some diversity going on. Right now the Democratic party is the only party with Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, and a lesbian in Congress. Only one openly gay man has won a senate seat, and he's a Democrat too. (All other gay or bisexual Congressmen have been outed after their elections, including both Democrats and Republicans.) Democrats had the only Sikh b ack in the day. The majority of women in Congress are Democrats too.

It's no secret that the only demographic that Republicans totally dominate in is white men, and that with immigration and the changing religious landscape, that that demographic is shrinking while ALL other demographics are growing.

So uh.. why are Republicans chasing white moderate men out of their party?

Bull.  We have former Hindu now Catholic Gov Piyush "Bobby" Jindal of Louisiana, Muslims, women, youth, tech-savvy, the first Vietnamese Senator Anh Cao (R-LA) and an black former Lt. Governor of the blue state of Maryland--Michael Steele as Chairman.  We need to get out and focus on fiscal policy more, imo.

Muslims?

I'm starting to wonder if you even pay attention to politics.  Muslims supported Bush in 2000.  They haven't supported Republicans since.  Republican wackos crying "Obama is a secret Muslim!" as if that should be something scary, have scared away Republican Muslim support, which was shrinking before then anyway.  The few (anecdotal) Muslims I know all voted for Obama, and one of them has even been detained by immigration services to find out if he was a terrorist, and they didn't let him talk to his family or his wife for days.  It can happen to him again, at any time.  He's not exactly happy with the government's treatment of Muslims.

Democrats have elected 2 Democratic Muslims to Congress.  Republicans have no Muslims in Congress, and barely any Muslim support in 2009.

Okay, so you guys have a FORMER Hindu Governor, while the Democrats attract FORMER Republicans.  And on the other hand, Republican Congressman Bill Sali was actually OFFENDED in 2007 that we allowed a Hindu prayer in the Senate chamber.  Protestors tried to shout really loud so nobody could hear the Hindu prayer.  Sali was also offended we let a Muslim into Congress, and claimed that "this was not envisioned by the founding fathers," pulling some more of that "we are a Christian nation" crap.  Republicans were offended that Keith Ellison was sworn in on a Koran instead of a Bible, so Ellison used Thomas Jefferson's Koran to own everybody.

I'm not gonna say anything stupid like the whole Republican party hates Muslims and Hindus and are all intolerant assholes... but the really loud Republicans who say that kind of shit constantly scare away the voters and hurt the party.  That is a problem for the Republican Party as a whole.