So, I looked on the Wikipedia entry for
party switching in the United States. Sadly but unsurprisingly, more Democrats have become Republicans than the other way around.
Now it's easy to say, "oh but only southern crackers (like Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms) do that...forget them". But read below the fold...the (partial) list is quite interesting...
I'm only featuring well-known and prominent names.
SWITCHED FROM DEMOCRAT TO REPUBLICAN
Ronald Reagan - Former Governor of California and President of the United States, 1962
Strom Thurmond - Former Governor and Senator from South Carolina, 1964
Jesse Helms - Former Senator from North Carolina, 1970
Mills Godwin Jr. - Former Governor of Virginia, 1973
John Connally - Former Governor of Texas and Treasury Secretary, 1973
Jim Gerlach - Current Representative from Pennsylvania, 1979
Bob Stump - Former Representative from Arizona, 1981
Phil Gramm - Former Senator from Texas, 1983
Kent Hance - Former Representative from Texas, 1985 (beat GWB in 1978)
Rick Perry - Current Governor of Texas, 1990 (was urged by Rove to switch)
Buddy Roemer - Former Governor of Louisiana, 1991
Dick Shelby - Current Senator from Alabama, 1994
Ben Nighthorse Campbell - Former Senator from Colorado, 1995
Billy Tauzin - Former Representative from Louisiana, 1995
Nathan Deal - Current Representative from Georgia, 1995
Wes Watkins - Former Representative from Oklahoma, 1996
Norm Coleman - Current Senator from Minnesota, 1996
Mike Bloomberg - Current Mayor of New York City, 2001
Amy Tuck - Current Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, 2002
Virgil Goode - Current Representative from Virginia, 2002 (went from Dem to Indie to GOP)
Ralph Hall - Current Representative from Texas, 2004
Rodney Alexander - Current Representative from Louisiana, 2004
And the most depressing part? This is a very selective list. There's of course Greg Laughlin, Jimmy Hayes, Mike Parker, Matthew Martinez, Floyd Spence, Albert Watson, Tommy Robinson, Bill Grant, Andy Ireland, Eugene Atkinson, and a slew of others that I don't have time to mention. Now of course it's easy to write them off as a bunch of southern crackers or DINO's who never belonged in the party anyway. But prominent party-switchers have done significant harm to the party in recent years. Some say that Strom's switch is what eventually led to South Carolina's flight from the Democratic Party starting in the late 1960's. Shelby arguably did the same for Alabama, which had only had one Republican Senator in recent years before his switch. Had Reagan remained a Democrat, the 1980's would have been very different. And Bloomberg's petty switch (he switched only to avoid a tough primary) have caused us another 4 (soon to be 8) years of humiliation not holding the mayor's office in our most loyal city! My God, even the man who wiped the floor with George W. Bush in 1978 is now a Republican!!!!!!!
So how do we counteract? The other (much slimmer and less well-known) list:
SWITCHED FROM REPUBLICAN TO DEMOCRAT
Wayne Morse - Former Senator from Oregon, 1956 (went from GOP to Indie to Dem)
Hillary Clinton - Current Senator from New York, 1960's (while in college)
John Lindsay - Former Mayor of New York City, 1971
Leon Panetta - Former Representative from California and WH Chief of Staff, 1971
Ogden Reid - Former Representative from New York, 1972
Don Riegle - Former Senator from Michigan, 1973
Peter Peyser - Former Representative from New York, 1977
Tom Foglietta - Former Representative from Pennsylvania, 1980 (went from GOP to Indie to Dem)
Michael Forbes - Former Representative from New York, 1999
Jim Jeffords - Current Senator from Vermont, 2001 (went from GOP to Indie, but caucuses with Dems)
Teresa Heinz Kerry - Wife of Senator John Kerry, 2003
Those are the only famous (or well-known nationally) politicians in recent history to switch from R to D. There's also former Pennsylvania Treasurer Barbara Hafer in 2003, Idaho Senator Fred Dubois in 1901 (I've never heard of him either), and, just this year, former Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Commissioner Andy Warren. But who knows these people?
Most of the R to D switches have occurred in large northern states, like New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, or in California. But as you see, the list is much much shorter.
What are we to do? Thoughts please.