[tialaramex]

I guess I hadn't heard this news. Who defected? I mean, you said "prominent" so presumably we're talking a few US senators or a Governor or something ? People I'd have heard of?

About half of Reform's parliamentary party were elected as Tories. Was Josh Hawley previously a Democrat ? Did Mitch used to be Bernie's best friend and then Trump swayed him to join the GOP ? Maybe Rand Paul or Tom Cotton ? No ? So we're not talking about the same thing at all.

[rayiner]

Tulsi Gabbard, who was a House member and vice chair of the DNC, and RFK Jr., who is a Kennedy. In the other direction you have Michael Steele, who was chairman of the RNC, and Dick Cheney, who was the Vice President.

What you’re describing is just a party realignment. It’s a much bigger realignment than what you’ve seen in the U.S. for awhile, but every now and then when coalitions will break apart and reform. Many of the original GOP members were former Whig Party members (which was one of the two major parties that existed after the Federalist Party collapsed). Ir would’ve been weird to call the GOP “Temu Whigs” because they had a different coalition with different priorities, despite the overlap.

In the UK, it seems like Reform is prepared to moderate on the economic libertarianism of the Thatcherite Tory Party in order to bring culturally conservative anti-immigration voters into the coalition.

[tialaramex]

I had heard of Gabbard. So that's one representative. It's not nothing but it's not "several" where I come from.

I can't count RFK Jr. I had never heard of him before the 2024 Election Cycle.