The Democrats and their media allies continue to make the absurd claim that a few hundred pro-Trump protesters scuffling with cops, aimlessly sauntering the halls of Congress, and taking selfies with their feet propped up on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk is one of the worst events in American history.
Recent liberal comparisons have the Jan. 6 U.S Capitol riot as a bigger threat to the stability and sustainability of the nation than the Civil War, two world wars, and 9/11.
In truth, the typical weekend violence in Chicago brings more loss of life and property damage than occurred on Jan. 6.
But for liberals trying to hang on to power as their agenda grows more radical by the day, it’s ‘go big’ on Jan. 6 or go home.
Over the weekend, political strategist John Couvillon unrolled a tweet thread that deflated one of the immediate post-Jan 6. media hot takes: that the riot was the death knell for the Republican Party.
A few weeks after the riot the mainstream media treated us to headlines like “Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party (New York Times), “Republicans Flee the GOP After Capitol Riots” (U.S. News & World Report), and “Registered Republicans Ditch Party After Capitol Riot” (Reuters).
Couvillon, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said not so fast.
“In the immediate aftermath of the events of January 6,” he wrote, “much has been written about supposed mass defections from the Republican Party. However, what does actual voter registration data say?”
Noting the wide discrepancy in how frequently states update voter rolls, and that some don’t do partisan registration at all, Couvillon said he considered the trends in 24 states that update voter rolls “fairly often.”
On Twitter he identified 21 states, and they revealed a mix of red, blue, and purple.
On Jan. 1, he tweeted, partisan voter registration in those 24 states totaled 77.5 million voters. Among 37.3 percent were Democrats, 33.8 percent were Republicans, and 28.9 percent were not affiliated with either major party.
“Despite numerous ‘Republicans abandoning their party’ stories that were fairly standard fare in January,” Couvillon added, “the percentage spread barely changed by February 1”: Democrats and Republicans each declined 0.1 percent while the unaffiliated increased 0.1 percent.
Now, six months later, Couvillon pointed out how the percentages have changed since January: Democrats, from 37.3 percent to 37.1 percent; Republicans, from 33.8 percent to 33.6 percent, and all others, from 28.9 percent to 29.3 percent.
In “absolute numbers,” Couvillon said, the number of Democrats in those states dropped by 729,000, Republicans fell by 606,000, and the others dipped by 173,000.
“Why the uniform decrease? Because typically after a major election cycle, states clean up their voter rolls,” Couvillon explained.
“The main point here? It never hurts to verify news stories with actual data, if such data is available,” he concluded. “And with having that data, I’m not seeing this ‘mass defection’ from the Republican Party. Instead, we seem to have continuing partisan de-alignment.”
As Bonchie, a columnist at the conservative RedState blog site noted, “As Couvillon’s thread shows, the exodus from the Democrat Party has actually been larger than the GOP in regards to registrations.”
“In short, regardless of one’s opinion on the severity of January 6th, it is clearly not a priority in the minds of almost all Americans. The only people still obsessing over it are partisans seeking to use it as a wedge issue. It has not changed the landscape of the political parties the way the media wanted it to,” Bonchie added.
“In 2022, Americans will vote. They will vote based on the economy, cultural battles, energy prices, foreign policy, and a variety of other issues. What they won’t be doing is voting against their own interests because of January 6th. The suggestion was always nonsensical.”
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