Most “independents” are faking it, more or less….
A few days ago I summarized data from Gallup that indicated a growing number of people (42%) decline to call themselves “Democrat” or “Republican,” and claim to be “independent,” whatever that means….
I said 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….indeed, all but a handful of those "independents" readily admit that they "lean" to the Democratic or Republican side.
Now two political scientists have shined a bit more light on this murky “independent” thing.
Yanna Krupnikov and Samara Klar report that most “independents” really aren’t independent, either in thought or deed—they claim to be “independent” because it gives a positive impression, because it’s a socially desirable label, because they’re embarrassed to explicitly align themselves with a partisan political party.
In a WashingtonPost.com piece, Krupnikov and Klar mention that some folks try to distance themselves from partisan politics that are perceived as not socially acceptable.
But here’s the kicker:
“What we don’t find is any change in people’s actual political views. Even while reporting that they are independent, respondents repeatedly clung to the partisan issue positions they had held all along. Indeed, when we asked people to place themselves on either the Republican or Democratic side of a series of issues, they were not only consistent in which side they picked across all the issues, but reminding them of partisan disagreement had no effect.”
In other words, for many self-proclaimed “independents,” it’s about putting on a good face, not about any non-partisan inclinations, and it’s a cover-up for actual personal convictions and actual political views and actual ideologies.
Most “independents” are faking it, more or less.
p.s. ….the depressing reality is that people are not voting by the tens of millions, the ultimate critique of our political morass....
All the talk about independent/Democrat/Republican/liberal/conservative is just talk until people start taking their convictions and principles to the polls....
All the talk about independent/Democrat/Republican/liberal/conservative is just talk until people start taking their convictions and principles to the polls....
some other thoughts….
As to the p.s. isn't there a line of thought that when you have a large percentage of people voting that you are facing troubled times and when you have a smaller percentage means the population is satisfied and complacent? That being asked, the lack of an educated electorate is much more troubling. This relates back to my comment of which party will give more "free stuff" just to win an election.
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