Filling the Tent

Back to Mark Schmitt's post now ....

I really can't say enough good things about it as I believe Mark hits on a pretty powerful concept that deserves some thought among partisans. From our side of the political coin, there's a certain sense of wagons circling in terms of defining "the base," giving "the grassroots/netroots" its due, and so on ... all while ignoring the vast swathe of voters that "look like Democrats" in terms of economic, sociological, demographic, or whatever makeup and composition.

With the common fears about open primaries, I think it's worth noting the example witnessed here in Texas. Yes, we had a prolonged past of people voting in the Dem primaries that had no business even considering themselves Democrats. David Richards tells the story pretty effectively in his book on Texas liberalism. But just like Rick Casey regales us with the need for liberal Democrats in Waco to draw voters to their own primary, solutions tend to evolve to meet the extreme problems such as these. I suspect the fears of Wisconsin Republicans moving over to cast votes for Howard Dean are pretty small compared to the examples we've seen in our past.

Aside from that, the view of more and more transactional memberships is significant in terms of viewing party structure. A quick re-reading of Rhodes Cook's best offering this year is worthwhile:

Understanding the unaffiliated will keep political scientists plenty busy for a long time to come, but we already know they make up a disparate group. Some are one-time Democrats or Republicans, disgruntled with their former party. Some are new voters, not ready to commit to any party or disdainful of people who put a label on their politics. Many are "raging moderates," comfortable with the comparative calm of the political middle. And for some, independent status is simply a matter of a particular state's registration rules.

...

... the trend line is unmistakable, with the registration figures since the last presidential election being particularly telling. Over the last four years, as election officials have purged their rolls of inactive voters, the Democratic total in the party-registration states has fallen by 1.3 million. The Republicans are down far less, only 170,000 in those states. But the "other" category remains a growth stock, adding more than 600,000 voters since George W. Bush and Al Gore did battle.

In short, both parties will have to work hard in the months ahead to get their base back to where it was on the eve of the 2000 election while dealing with an electorate that is becoming more and more independent in its registration habits.

The ranks of the unaffiliated voter have grown as the country has become more mobile, more suburban and less attached to political parties. Will this movement grow large enough to disrupt the seesaw nature of American politics over the past 100 years?

With the out-migration of voters to varying points of independence, it would seem to be a necessity to lower the barriers to re-entry, even if it means a few more nefarious creatures voting in opposite party primaries to wreck a little havoc here and there. The wisdom of crowds seems to be such that those votes are negligible, at best. I mean, McCain didn't exactly sweep the Texas GOP Primary in 2000 because of all those Dems who had nothing better to do in the Primary. So, in the words of Sir Paul McCartney ... Let Em In!