Arlen Specter Isn't the Only One Abandoning the GOP

New Washington Post poll shows a party in decline:

when you are looking for clues as to where the two parties stand politically there is only one number to remember: 21.

That's the percent of people in the Post/ABC survey who identified themselves as Republicans, down from 25 percent in a late March poll and at the lowest ebb in this poll since the fall of 1983(!).

In that same poll, 35 percent self-identified as Democrats and 38 percent called them Independents….

….they show a somewhat significant decline from even last November's election when exit polls showed 32 percent of voters identifying as Republican as compared to 39 percent for Democrats and 29 percent for independents and others.

But remember: there is a great deal of ruin in a party, and post-1964 was a pretty similarly grim period for the GOP's public support. They just need to hope Obama keeps following the LBJ legacy and then in 2012–who can be their Nixon? Take your pick! 

Back in Reason magazine's March issue, I wrote a review essay on conservatism's past and future vis a vis the Republican Party's so-called successes, which notes a few times in our political lifetimes the Party could have fairly been declared dead or dying–yet it didn't turn out that way.