Dianna Heitz reported this on Politico.com yesterday:
"The percentage of adults identifying as independents has swelled to match its highest point in 70 years, according to the biannual values survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, while the percentage of self-identified Republicans fell to its lowest mark in at least 25 years.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents self-identified as independents, compared with 33 percent who considered themselves Democrats and 22 percent who identified as Republicans.
The study showed 33 percent of independents say their views are conservative, up from about 28 percent two years ago and 26 percent four years ago, a shift the study attributes at least in part to the spate of defections from the GOP in recent years.
The survey of 3,013 adults was conducted from March 31 to April 21"
Independants are simply cowards too affraid to indentify how they vote so they can be liked by others...
Undecided voters in last elections...
http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/daily-show-undecided-voters-aka-...
zietgeist - that's not true. I think the D & R parties have merged & changed so much, they just don't speak to most people anymore. Both have earned bad reputations. I always voted R unti Obama - my whole life voted R. But the R party is so far removed from what I believe in anymore - so off center, I'd never call myself an R now. I've always been skittish about voting D because it was always the party (at least in my own head) that meant giving to the welfare state & poor & to hell with everybody else, and that the focus would be more on meeting racial quotas than is fair to all. Most people I know who were declared R or D's who now say they are independents, say so for similar reasons. Too much corruption with both R & D - and R's seem to have become the party that most benefits the wealthy & to hell with the middle class. The D party seems to do the same in reverse.
Hrm.....you voted for exactly what you are going to get....welfare state & poor & to hell with everybody else...
Only now it's corporate welfare and making GM and chrysler Investors poor...and to hell with everyone else...
Even Obama's court pick is affirmative action and a racial quota...
I cant help it if you are not paying attention...
Reagan, Clinton & Bush destroyed this country - set it on it;'s current path to the poorhouse. I was furious with Bush about the Iraq war (Iraq had nothing to do with 911) & McCain said publicaly at least 2 times, that if elected, he intended to keep our troops in Iraq for another 10 or 10,000 years if need be, until we 'won' (it is not a war to be 'won', and language like that only incites Iraqis). - at a huge monthly cost to keep them there. Our troops have been in Iraq for 7 years so far? At what cost? So when it came time to vote, McCain was not a possiblitty for me (and he lost it completely when he added Palin). The Independents didnt have a chance or had dropped out of the race - so I took a chance - risk a welfare state or keep the war going in Iraq forever & watch the wealthy keep getting richer because of their tax cuts & loopholes, intending to destroy the middle class. As it turns out, the middle class is being destroyed anyway - only in the opposite direction. My family did not benefit from having Reagan or Bush in office - my husband hasn't had any kind of raise in 8 years (as of before the election), profit sharing was gone a long time ago, health benefits shrinking by the year to where we have a $4,200. deductable. I took a chance with Obama - the first time ever voting Democrat. Am I regretting it? I worry, a lot. But I am so weary of hearing staunch R's blame the ills of this country on Obama - this country was going down in flames, the trigger was already pulled, before Obama even got elected.
«I took a chance with Obama - the first time ever voting Democrat. Am I regretting it? I worry, a lot.»
You should worry. Keeping campaign promises is not Obama's forte. He's keeping much of the same executive regime as Bush did. He's keeping the wars hot, and keeping the middle class cold.
I knew Obama was a mis-representation of Democratic principles. So I didn't vote for him. And unlike the hypermajority of self-styled "independents", I didn't vote for McCain either.
Obama is a failure. He's not even 6 months into his 4-yr term and his Book of Failure is getting fat. He inherited the Bush Depression, and hasn't done anything of note to alleviate it. It's blossoming well into the Great Depression II. He's only making it worse, so that it will run longer, or deeper, or both. So once again, Americans rubber-stamped their corporate ruler.
Remember: You could always have voted Libertarian. That's the true repository of FISCAL CONSERVATISM. Everyone should want the government to handle their tax revenue wisely, and that's Libertarian in nature. So voting for Obama wasn't "taking a chance", Starling. It was making the wrong choice out of fear of being marginalized. Don't dress it up otherwise.
«Thirty-nine percent of respondents self-identified as independents, compared with 33 percent who considered themselves Democrats and 22 percent who identified as Republicans.»
This is so obviously BULLSHIT. Breakdowns of the 2008 and 2004 Presidential elections:
2008 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008
Democrat 52.9%
Republican 45.7%
Other 1.4%
2004 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004
Democrat 48.3%
Republican 50.7%
Other 1%
So how does it happen that about 1% of voting Americans select Presidents from outside the Two-Party Duopoly, yet about THIRTY TIMES that number claim they are independent?
Statistical errors can't account for all that. So it's inescapably evident that a hypermajority of self-styled "independents" are nothing of the sort. They either lie to the survey takers, or they lie to themselves.
...or...they've been conditioned by the two major parties that if you don't vote for a Republican or Democrat then you're wasting your vote. Now, that's bull**** in my opinion.
My vote is my vote, period. I don't owe it to a Democrat or Republican even though partisans on both sides would have you believe you do.
Oh, and by the way, my 11 year old daughter can walk into a polling place and vote a straight party ticket if told to. I choose not to let other people or political parties tell me who to vote for.