Canary Row

If a whole row of coal mine canaries begin falling like little feathered dominoes, at what point does the message get across that the air is poisonous?

One asks because of low Democratic turnout in Illinois – and very, very strong Republican turnout in the same state where they are badly outnumbered.

Based on the current numbers 885,268 voters were cast in the Democratic primary for Senate compared to 736,137 on the Republican side. Those numbers are awfully close to each other for a state that’s overwhelmingly Democratic.

Can’t find the exact numbers for what the difference is, but Illinois has been heavily Democratic for a long time. Although things are looking a lot worse for the Democrats this year as their total nationwide has now fallen to another all-time low. As in lowest percentage ever.

Currently, 35.4% of American adults view themselves as Democrats. That’s down from 35.5% a month ago and 36.0 two months ago. Prior to last month, the lowest total ever recorded for Democrats was 35.9%, a figure that was reached twice in 2005. See the History of Party Trends from January 2004 to the present.

(Yes, I know that’s in Rasmussen’s history of tracking these numbers).

The, canaries all in a row, one by one they fall.