The Monkey Cage is a regular feature in the Washington Post that presents political science research. This column, “Independents Didn’t Decide the Midterm Election” by Samara Klav and Yanna Krupnikov presents research suggesting that most self-described independent voters are just as partisan as party members. It says the real reason Democrats did badly in this week’s election is that such a large proportion of Democrats didn’t turn out to vote.
This was an excellent feature article. The authors’ conclusion that most independents are not really independents but rather Democrats or Republicans who publicly label themselves as “independent” because it sounds/looks better is not really surprising.
More and more folks LYING to the moron pollsters ???
Lots of MORON Donkey voters who think a monarch/tyrant Prez controls the USA for 4 years ??? —
so they think that voting in mid term elections is useless.
Way to go for the rotted public education in the States.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
There’s plenty of evidence of that on social media websites or mainstream news websites with comment sections like Yahoo. They claim to be independents, but only consider candidates within the Democratic/Republican duopoly. I have seen some bona fide independents before though.
As for the Democratic Party turnout being so low, I’m certainly not one to complain. The low turnout may have helped Paula Bradshaw get a high enough percentage of the vote to retain ballot access for the Green Party here in the Illinois 12th District.
I meant major party status in the last sentence, although with the signature requirement being on par with the Democrats and Republicans, it’s highly likely we’ll have a candidate on the ballot for Congress in 2016.
This was similar to the evidence presented by the State of Idaho in the Idaho Pick-A-Party lawsuit.
The evidence was that there were self-styled “independents” who would consistently vote for Republican candidates and hold views consistent with the party; and there were others who professed to be Republicans, but generally held antithetical views and not vote for the party candidates in the general election. They considered themselves “Republicans” for social reasons such as their parents were Republicans rather than their political beliefs.
The judge disregarded the plaintiff’s evidence (Governor Otter’s assessment that Rod Beck was just upset he couldn’t get nominated was correct). Instead took as truth that “Independents” would vote in the Republican primary, and that by closing the primary At the same time persons who self-identified as “Republicans” would have no compunction about registering as Republicans and voting in the primary.
There was a book years ago, “The Myth of the Independent Voter” by Keith et al., that explored this idea in considerable depth.
I have to disagree with this study. Just because I may vote for one major party’s candidates more so than the other, is not that I am “one of them,” rather that I like their candidates’ position on certain issues better than I like the other party’s. And if there were an Independent running for the office, I am most likely going to vote for the Independent.
Still, I find that I disagree with both major parties more than I agree with them. I could give a laundry list of disagreements I have with BOTH major parties.
There might not be as many true Independents like me, but there are many of us who dislike both major parties, but want our vote to have some effect on the outcome of the election – especially when we are denied the right to vote for “one of our own.”
Samara Klav and Yanna Krupnikov need to do some more research.
The article sounds to me like some losers are making excuses for the losses of the Democrats. They are going to “out” those closeted Republicans who call themselves phony “independents’ just for spike.
Walter Ziobro:
Well, they won’t be “outing” me, as I am a “dyed in the wool” Independent and hold the positions on the issues to prove it. I can rip a Big Business, Globalist Republican up one side and down the other, just as good as I can a Liberal, Internationalist Democrat!