Asked to identify with one of a tripartite list of labels — “Democrat, Republican, or independent” — more Americans than ever before are choosing the label “independent.” Fewer are choosing Republican, while the amount identifying as Democrat is staying fairly stable. … This, to me, appears to be another indicator […] Read more »
Most political independents actually aren’t
So Gallup has a splashy new headline: “Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents.” … In actuality, real independents make up just over 10 percent of Americans, and a small fraction of Americans who actually vote. … In many other respects, voters are not “declaring independence” from political parties. In fact, […] Read more »
Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents
Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years […] Read more »
The Center Cannot Hold
If you ask them, Americans will tell you that they want constructive compromise and a more conciliatory political regime, even though they are reluctant to reach agreement when it comes to the specific issues that they actually care about. In “Why American Political Parties Can’t Get Beyond the Left-Right Divide,” […] Read more »
The Radical Political Center That Somehow Never Rises
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, among others, frequently forecasts the rise of a centrist candidate or party that will help move the country past its stubborn left-right divide. There’s some intuitive logic to all of this. After all, if the parties keep moving further and further apart, that theoretically […] Read more »
Does VA Gov Explain the 1992 Perot Vote?
One more time into the question about the VA-Gov polls and the election results. I came up with a possible (and speculative) explanation based on the condition of two candidates who were not especially popular among their own parties, along with a sufficiently well-publicized third candidate. CONT. Jonathan Bernstein, A […] Read more »