Saturday, January 11, 2014

Ashamed to admit you're a Democrat/Republican?


Maybe a sizeable number of folks are just too embarrassed to admit that they are Democrats or Republicans. 

Not too surprising if it's true—the national "approval rating" for Congress has been down around 10% for a long time, generally we think our elected representatives are worthless.

Gallup reported recently that the number of adults who explicitly identify themselves as a Democrat (31%) or Republican (25%) is at the lowest level in the last 25 years—and the ambiguously named "Independents" have been growing steadily for the last several years.

In fact, about 42% of Americans claim to be "independent" when first asked about political affiliation. Now, let's be clear: all but a handful of those "independents" readily admit that they "lean" to the Democratic or Republican side (about an even split between the two traditional parties).


I think the point of these Gallup results is that a lot of folks don't feel comfortable calling themselves a Democrat or Republican, and, I think, with good reason. The elected Dems and GOP reps in Congress have been doing close to nothing for several years to do their duty along the lines of boosting growth in our national economy and helping to create jobs for millions of Americans who want to work.

But I think there's a lurker in these survey results: there's no clear and accepted concept of what being "independent" means, and I'm pretty sure that the roughly 100 million Americans who claim to be "independent" have more than one concept of what that declaration implies.

Very fundamental elements of our presumed representative democracy are off balance, out of kilter and corrupted. Millions and millions of voters are confused, conflicted and contemptuous of politics and the "system."

Voter turnout has been dangerously low for generations. What if we gave an election and nobody showed up to vote?










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