President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Self-identified independents are 1. 90 percent of them almost perpetual Democratic or Republican voters who ID as independent for self-esteem reasons. 2. The other 10 percent are the real swing voters, and are the ones who in general pay the least attention to politics among those who do vote. These statements have been confirmed by political science research and countless polls.

 

So the most open minded and willing to change from D to R and back to D are the ones paying the least attention?

Sounds a little backward, since the ones who ostensibly are paying attention don't seem to be utilizing all this attention to consider they may be on the wrong side from time to time.

Maybe by "not paying attention" they're simply not seeking out confirmation of what they already believe all the time.

 

It's not that simple.

 

I don’t see the benefit of being a registered independent. The fact that you are registered for a certain party obviously doesn’t mean that you have to vote for only candidates of that party. I rather have the option to be able to vote in a primary than not.

 

The self-esteem statement was editorializing on my part. That the vast majority of self-identified independents routinely vote for one of the two parties despite saying they are independent is as certain as anything in social science can be.

 

One of the few things Alabama gets right is that there is no formal party registration. When I go in next week, I can request a Democratic ballot or a GOP one (LOL). Only restriction is you can’t vote for Team A’s primary and then cross over to Team B for the runoff.

 

That’s a rarity — a well thought out voting system.

 

Here in Massachusetts, if you are registered without ID'ing a party preference, you can vote in either primary. About half the state's voters state no party preference. One-third are Democrats, one-sixth GOP. Many of the no preference voters are Republicans who want to participate in down ballot Democratic primaries which are quite often the real elections here, just as the Republican primaries are in your state.

 

My language was not clear enough. Most "independents" choose the SAME party in almost every election when they vote, be it the Democrats or Republicans. They are de facto partisans despite their self-identification.