General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Pew Research study: "Independent Voters" are way overhyped as an electorate.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/30/1861458/-Pew-confirms-it-there-s-no-real-such-thing-as-an-independent-voterAnd yes, there are independents who, generally, are too apathetic to care enough to realize that there are real differences between the two parties, and might swing. But that kind of person is also very likely to, you know, not vote at all.
And while this all sounds anecdotal, its not. Its in the findings of the latest Pew Research study on so-called independents.
Top line? Only 7% of Americans are true independentsindividuals who genuinely dont lean toward either of the two major parties. And of those? Only 33% voted in 2018!
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)I laughed in his face. I asked him when had he never not voted Republican. He had no answer. Most so-called independents are phonies. They're too chickenshit to stand by what hey believe so they pretend to be above it all, when they are about the furthest thing from.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Yet there were no democratic Tea Partiers and no Tea Partier ever supported a Democrat.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Elections can turn on single digit margins, so even if the "true" independents are only 2% of the voters, they can turn an election.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)FakeNoose
(32,917 posts)... but I always voted for a Democrat every time. I grew up in a proud Republican family in the Midwest during the 50s and 60s. I was definitely a liberal, anti-war and anti-Nixon. However I never joined for Democratic Party for many years. It wasn't until Hillary ran in 2008 and I truly wanted to vote for her in the primary - that I finally joined the Democratic Party. Glad I did and I've never looked back.
For many years I believed the Republican Party might sometime have a candidate (someone like Dwight Eisenhower) that I would maybe want to vote for. They never did, and I never voted for any GOP candidate. If Nelson Rockefeller had lived to run for President, I might have voted for him, but he died young and didn't have the chance. Long story short, there were a lot of us Baby Boomers who for one reason or another didn't join the Dems, but almost always voted for Dems anyway. I think Pew Research is all wrong about this.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)The shift of the GOP towards nationalism, authoritarianism and jingoism is really remarkable. They have little in common with the GOP of 100 years ago.
FakeNoose
(32,917 posts)... we have now. Thank God my parents and grandparents never lived to see this. There used to be a few good, well-meaning patriots in the Repuke Party, but not any more and never again.
In my heart I've always been a Democrat.