Gallup Poll: GOP dominated by white religious conservatives

No surprise there. Soon it will be mostly white conservative males. Women (even fundamentalist GOP women) are recoiling at the harsh ridiculing statements being made against Sonia Sotomayor because she is a woman. (One idiotic example: G. Gordon LIDDY: Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.) The GOP has already lost the few Latino votes they had left, because of derogatory comments about Sotomayor. I, for one, am glad these "spokesmen" can't keep their mouths shut and that those representing the party these days are so blatantly racist, intolerant--and stupid. Long may Rush Limbaugh reign! And we know he is NEVER going to stop spewing his hateful rhetoric out into the airwaves. Soon the only ones listening will be those white conservative males--and even their numbers are shrinking as some of the more sensitive, intelligent ones are realizing, with horror, what has happened to their party.

Of course, the GOP will always have the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. And Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. Oh, and one woman who will never desert the party: Ann Coulter. That's some membership to be a part of. It's amazing to me that so many of them count themselves as "Christians," yet by their speech and actions show they have no intention of following the teachings of Christ.

My dad used to be proud of being a Republican. I think if he were alive now he would be recoiling from the Rush Limbaughs and Ann Coulters and their ilk. He was too much of a gentleman to follow that kind of hatred-spewing "leader." And I know for sure he would not like being called a "dittohead" by the likes of Limbaugh.

GALLUP POLL SHOWS GOP DOMINATED BY WHITE CONSERVATIVES

As the GOP struggles to define itself in the face of its own considerable image problems, a new poll indicates that the Republican party's base fundamentally lacks diversity.

The poll, released today by Gallup, shows that a staggering 89% of the GOP is white, and that 63% identify as conservatives. It is, in the words of the poll's author, "first and foremost a political entity dominated by white Americans."

In contrast, the poll found that around 36% of Democrats are non-white. Of the 64% of Democrats who are white, the poll found that about half lean toward a moderate or liberal ideological position.

The poll also suggests that Republicans are more religious than either Democrats or Independents, with about half of those polled identifying as "strongly religious."

The poll is particularly significant given the increasingly weak position of the GOP itself. As the author writes:

A great deal of attention has been paid to the plight of Republicans who at this juncture in history find themselves not controlling the presidency, the House, or the Senate....

The data reviewed here highlight an essential dilemma the Republicans face as they ponder their future. The Republican Party's constituency is overwhelmingly white -- and the significant majority of those whites are ideologically conservative, while a majority are highly religious, as defined by church attendance...

Does the Republican Party in essence "stick to the knitting" and cling to its core conservative principles? Or should the Republicans make an effort to expand their base -- among whites who are moderate or less religious, and/or the various nonwhite groups who to this point are largely ignoring the Republican Party in favor of the Democrats? The decision the party makes in response to this question could be pivotal in helping determine its future.

Republican Pat Buchanan acknowledged recently that there is a "real demographic problem with the Republican Party. It is a heavily white party."