tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766480662363186608.post8555016778900360470..comments2023-10-15T08:33:17.704-04:00Comments on What People Know: Are "Independents" Just Dumb?Hollanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07388479139384630638noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766480662363186608.post-19608724052017986982011-05-17T11:22:55.394-04:002011-05-17T11:22:55.394-04:00As a radical moderate myself, I lean toward that p...As a radical moderate myself, I lean toward that position, not thinking much of loonies on the left or wackos on the right. <br /><br />But one of the points of the research I found interesting was "independents" tend to vote far less often. That makes sense. Party identification continues to be, from the 1950s, the strongest predictor of voting and political participation.<br /><br />A lot of self-described "independents" are really just folks who don't care one way or the other. Apathetics. I'd guess of those who call themselves "independent," maybe half of them fall into this category.Hollanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07388479139384630638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1766480662363186608.post-12544021713813056642011-05-16T18:07:21.576-04:002011-05-16T18:07:21.576-04:00Typical vomit from partisans and people who are st...Typical vomit from partisans and people who are stuck seeing only in black and white / red and blue. There is a whole range of positions you can take on any issue. Centrists are closer to the right on some issues, and closer to the left on others, and there are left and right leaners, just as their are lefties and righties who lean towards the center.<br /><br />Centrists and moderates aren't fickle, we're just not given choices we like very often, so we have to decide on which is the one we can vote for that is just better than the other, lesser evil or just not vote. Same is the case for the really extreme folks who are out in the super fringe ideological range.<br /><br />Solomon Kleinsmith<br />Rise of the CenterSolomon Kleinsmithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14331941231942740033noreply@blogger.com