'Ditch and switch': Trump may be behind mass Democratic party exodus in Pa., experts say

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Nearly 46,000 Pennsylvania Democrats have gone Republican since the start of 2016, twice as many as have shifted the other way, as a wild primary fight continues to upend the business of politics as usual and challenge the status quo.Needless to say, much of this movement is being attributed to the rise of Donald Trump and the so-called "Ditch and Switch" movement, which leans on lifelong Democrats to abandon the party, register Republican and help ensure Trump's place in the November general election.

A website launched by two North Carolina sisters calling on Democrats to switch political parties and embrace Trump says, "For many years the Democratic Party has promoted agendas that most Americans did not agree with. Our country is deeply divided, and the silent majority has been bullied into silence by political posturing and underhanded agendas that favor the few while excluding the majority.

"The statement supports Dr. G. Terry Madonna's theory that at least some of the 46,000 Democrats-turned-Republican in Pennsylvania belong to a disaffected class that felt overlooked by elected leaders, or at odds with Democratic party ethos."With the increase in support in exit polls for Trump among working class, blue-collar Democrats, it is my belief that these are people who fall into that genre," said Madonna, who is director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster. "The other possibility is that you're finding some disaffected Democrats who believe the party has moved too far to the left. There are a number of possibilities," he added.  A third scenario involves Democrats who have long voted along Republican or conservative lines, but who have only now decided to shed the Democrat label.

Whatever their reasons, some almost certainly have to do with Trump's meteoric rise from reality television star to new face of the Grand Old Party. His success has been a flashpoint, both culturally and politically, and has left the Republican establishment in an uproar, and the party on the verge of Civil War, it would appear. But what impact his cross-over appeal, and the party purge it helped spawn, will have on the primary and general election results remains to be seen.It also cuts both ways, with more Latinos vowing to seek citizenship just to vote against Trump, and Democrats vowing to change parties, or not, in open primary states, in a last ditch effort to stop him by lending support to rivals, like Florida Senator, Marco Rubio.

  But so far, at least, the numbers favor Trump's pull as a conservative evangelist, with evidence of this trend, which has so far disproportionately benefitted Pennsylvania Republicans, turning up in counties across this state and others.In Massachusetts, as many as 20,000 Democrats have gone from blue-to-red this year with Trump cited as a primary reason. And in Ohio, as many as 1,000 blue collar workers have promised to switch parties and vote for Trump.