This year’s race is drawing crowds and great followings among Democratic Party supporters. Record turnout crowds in many states, and overall greater numbers than the GOP’s.

The biggest example of this was in South Carolina where 530,000 Democrats voted, nearly twice the party’s turnout of 2004 and nearly 20 percent higher than the Republican vote in the week before. It’s showing that more Democrats feel better about their candidates and have stronger commitments than Republicans do. “The Republicans didn’t have a field of candidates that produced any excitement,” observed Rice University political scientist Earl Black.

The Republicans are showing the effects of a fractured base, loose ideology, conflicting philosophy and a general lack of confidence in who they support. Many Republicans just don’t like their choices for president and have grown tired of the last eight years. John McCain, the current frontrunner, represents to many what is wrong with the Republican Party. He is loathed by much of the GOP, threatening to derail his candidacy.

There is a real fear that some Republicans will not vote if McCain gets the nomination and we can see clear results of dissatisfaction with Republican voters by again looking at South Carolina. On the Saturday primary, 130,000 fewer South Carolinians voted than in the 2000 contest between John McCain and George W. Bush.

There is a huge divide right now in the Republican Party. Will a Hillary nomination be the force that can unite it? Many may simply not care and will refuse to support a McCain presidency. There have been rumblings over the years that the Republican Party has left its base, abandoned basic conservative principles, and operate off the interest of the Party establishment. I wonder if these things are finally coming to pass?