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While the 2012 Republican caucus and primary turnouts in Iowa and New Hampshire (121,503 and 248,485, respectively) weren’t substantially different from 2008 (119,188 and 234,851 respectively), particularly considering the population growth in both states over the past four years, South Carolina’s 2012 turnout — 600,421 with 99.5% of precincts reporting — is markedly higher, nearly 155,000 more than in 2008.
My take is that this was the result of the TheoCons (UPDATE: What I for a long time have been calling “the religio-racist right”) pulling out all the stops to keep Romney from sailing unimpeded to the nomination.
Next up: Florida, which could, if Newt wins it, lead to the mother of all brokered conventions.
(To be crossposted to Mercury Rising.)
4 Comments
Pheonix
What do you think about the primary races in Minnesota?
Will Darcy Richardson get on the ballot?
That’s a 30% increase over 2008 and it suggests a mirror image of 2008. In 2008, Democrats had a fired-up base and benefited from a big increase in voter registration; it was more or less the opposite for the Republicans. This year, the circumstances are reversed. The Republican primary brought out many voters, but the Democrats and the liberals/lefties/proggies are discouraged.
For the most part, lefties and proggies have little reason to vote for any Democrats, so why should we vote in their primaries where all of the candidates are corporatists?
As for liberals, they are part of the problem as far as I’m concerned because they don’t want to do anything to derail the capitalist system that they still benefit from.
But if the GOP base is fired up nationwide, how come turnout in Iowa and New Hampshire was similar to that of 2008?
I think that it has to do with the fact that South Carolina Republicans, in keeping with the 300-year-plus tradition of the area (SC being the staunchest pro-slavery colony and later the loudest and first advocate for secession), were fired up to back Newt after his picking a fight with the NAACP (remember how the Republicans in the audience for the last debate loudly booed Juan Williams for going after Newt on this?). Newt pressed the Bigot Button, and it worked.