Posted on 03/14/2016 10:42:00 AM PDT by Starman417
Back in 2008 Rush Limbaugh had a bit called Operation Chaos where he suggested Republicans in Ohio and elsewhere cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democrat primary. The goal was to keep Clinton in the race to blunt the lead of Barack Obama and cause more chaos on the Democrat side. Well, Operation Chaos was pretty much a failure as Obama steamrolled Clinton.
While Limbaugh is not calling for an Operation Chaos this year, something along those lines is definitely happening but it doesnt have anything to do with Hillary Clinton this time, but rather, Donald Trump.
The turnout for this years primary contests is surging with record numbers of voters participating on the GOP side. No doubt there are Republicans who sat out in 2012 and 2008 who are now participating. But thats not the driver of the numbers. The driver is Democrats. In Massachusetts as example, according to the Boston Herald 20,000 Democrats switched to the Republican Party before the primary. That works out to fully 5% of the GOP ballots cast. Interestingly, Trumps 31% margin of victory in Massachusetts was the largest hes has had.
In Pennsylvania the same thing is happening. According to CBS 46,000 Pennsylvania Democrats have already switched to the GOP to vote for Trump. If the participation in the Pennsylvania primary exhibits the same kind of increase Massachusetts did (up 12% over 2008, the last year with a lame duck president in office) then those 46,000 Democrats will make up 5% of the 900,000 GOP voters.
But of course thats not the only way Democrats are influencing the GOP primary. In Massachusetts and Pennsylvania they switched because both are closed states in that registrants of party cant vote in the primaries of another party. Massachusetts is officially open however as unaffiliated voters can vote in any partys primary. That means that the only way Democrats in those two states can vote in the GOP primary is by changing parties.
But in a large number of states you dont even have to do that. Those states have Open primaries or caucuses where voters can vote in either partys primary, regardless of which party they are registered in. That makes a HUUGGGGEEEE difference. (And for course, Ohio is an "Open" primary.) To give you an idea of how big, consider the following:
There have been a total of 14 open primaries and caucuses where Democrats are able to vote in the GOP contest. Donald Trump has won 12 of them. At the same time, there have been a total of 9 primaries and caucuses in closed states and Ted Cruz has won 6 of them, while Donald Trump has won only 3 of them.So in the states where only Republicans can vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses Ted Cruz has won 66% of the contests while Donald Trump has won 34%... and those are states where data shows that tens of thousands of Democrats are switching party affiliation for the specific purpose of voting for Trump in the GOP contest. At the same time however, in states where Democrats are free to vote in the GOP contest Donald Trump has won 85% of the time.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
It explains the 7 Southern states with open primaries (but not Kentucky or Louisiana).
Dont throw punches if you object to being hit back.
Snickering at your babble is not "objecting to being hit back."
Hey, if the Publican party wants to have loyalty oaths, all day meetings, and other distractions to keep Trump from winning the nomination go ahead.
Just remember — if they don’t want my vote they won’t get it in November.
That's what McLame supporters said.
Facts are a bitch.
I think Republicans, and Republicans only, should choose their nominee. I think open primaries are crazy (or worse).
Sure, like when the GOP pragmatically selected Gerald Ford over the unelectable Ronald Reagan.
What a pile of Bovine Scatology! The GOP and the Democrats don't want Trump. They are the same party with 2 names. Trump is killing them all.
Dunno, I wasn’t alive back then. Millennial here.
It is madness to have Democrats pick the Republican nominee, especially where the nominee is only getting 35% of the popular vote.
Head to head match ups that show Republican preference between two candidates show Trump loosing.
I re-watched Cruz’s first presidential candidate speech from March 2015. I wanted to see what he said on immigration.
He spent about 30 seconds on it and mostly he talked about reforming our immigration system. He did say ‘seal the border’ but thats it! No wall, no detail, nothing, just ‘seal the border and ....we need to fix our broken immigration system’.
He’s just another politician who will do nothing to fix the illegal alien issue and that is why Trump is whooping him.
We should have told Reagan Democrats to stay home.
If it gets down to Trump-Hillary the debates and the results could get very interesting, and “unexpected”...:^)
It’s insane to let left-wing “journalists” like George Stephanopoulos and Candy Crowley, etc., moderate Republican primary debates because they have a conflict of interest and are allowed to control the narrative.
It’s also insane to let Democrats, posing as an “Undeclared” or “Independant”, vote in Republican primaries. They negate the votes of actual Republicans.
My sister in law in FL and her mother have both been democrats for their entire lives. The mother retired from working in the democrat party in FL.
They are both voting for Trump IN NOVEMBER! Why? Immigration, terrorism and safety. My SIL turned when Obama traded the 5 terrorists.
“That’s what McLame supporters said. Facts are a bitch.”
It is also what Reagan said and did.
History is a bitch.
Oh, you should have mentioned that you’re just an incoherent nutbag who lacks basic language skills.
So my question is, if all this support for Trump is just thousands upon thousands of democrats engaging in an Operation Chaos, but planning to vote for Hillary, why are so many of them to his rallies?
These rules were put in place by the Republican establishment to attract non Republican cross over voters to make sure the Conservative base did not hijack the primaries and block “moderate” presidential candidates (i.e. establishment candidates approved by and beholden to the Republican power brokers and special interests) from winning the primaries.
They loved the system when it allowed candidates like John McCain and Mitt Romney to thumb their noses at the Republican base and still win the nomination.
The Republican establishment had become so arrogant and dismissive of their base that Jeb Bush, the the quintessential Republican establishment candidate, publicly crowed that his strategy was to “lose the primaries to win the general election” or, in other words, Bush openly told the Republican base to f**k off in order to win support from voters who detest Republicans and have no intention of voting for one in the general election. In, fact Bush worked so hard, spent so much money ($150+ million) and did such brilliant job of executing his " losing the primaries to win the general election" strategy that he lost the primaries and was out of the race before it even started. Jeb and his high powered , snarky and oh so much smarter than the rest of us "brain trust", did fail to appreciate the one minor, but quite significant flaw in their campaign strategy :-(
But they can be excused for that minor oversight.
And for very good reason - that strategy worked perfectly for McCain and Romney and allowed them to win the Republican nomination while abusing their base at every opportunity . In fact, Mitt Romney executed that strategy so well in 2012 that he managed to alienate 4 million members of the loyal Republican so badly that they refused to turn out and vote for him in the general election - taking down a huge number of Senate and House Republicans with him - against Barak Obama, no less, the weakest incumbent Presidential candidate in modern history
Now Trump is using their bad faith rule strategy against them and beating them like a drum with their own rules. Ironically, the Republican establishment is being hoist on it's own petard because Trump is using the rules enacted by Republican establishment to secure their lock on power to enable voters disgusted with the Republican leadership to oust those same leaders from the power and control
Well played
If McCain had campaigned for himself as hard as he campaigned for his opponent, he might have won.
“Doesnt explain Cruz being completely shut out in the South.”
LOL, yea it kinda does.
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