[Big_Monkey]

"As for that garbage indicating that the Democrats now have that 66% locked up for life--I know too many Democrats who voted for Reagan to believe that nonsense.

Don't ever let anecdotal evidence stand as a replacement for empirical and scientific evidence. Lifelong party loyalty for first time voters isn't just an American phenomena. It's also seen in other well-developed and mature democracies across the globe.

Don't take my word for it. Pick up a copy of The American Voter at either Amazon, or your local library. It was originally printed in the very early 60's and reprinted and updated in the 80's. It's the seminal work in this field. If you have taken any political science classes, you've either already read the book, or have used text books that use the The American Voter as reference material.

[Antoninus]

Don't ever let anecdotal evidence stand as a replacement for empirical and scientific evidence.

The fact that Reagan converted a lot of Democrats to Republicans isn't anecdotal.

Lifelong party loyalty for first time voters isn't just an American phenomena. It's also seen in other well-developed and mature democracies across the globe.

I would argue that it's a phenomenon of decaying Republics whose citizens are too lazy, stupid, or apathetic to dig deeper than party loyalty when it comes to voting. Once a large enough percentage of the population goes that route, it's a short trip to tyranny. We've been on that train since the 1960s.

[NinoFan]

Hmmm...I don’t know... It seems rather odd to put so much faith in a book based primarily on a study of an election that took place over 50 years ago. Citizens of this country do not associate themselves with political parties near as much as they used to, so why should one presume that the old trends still hold?