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More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow. . . . The trend is acute in states that are key to next year's presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats' registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans' by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000. . . . Registered Democrats still dominate the political playing field with more than 42 million voters, compared to 30 million Republicans and 24 million independents. But Democrats have lost the most — 1.7 million, or 3.9%, from 2008.De-registering from the Republican and Democratic parties is a major step in declaring one's political independence. The next step is even more important however: refusing to support the Democrats and Republicans and getting behind real Independent and third party alternatives to the stooges of the two-party state.
Exodus from the Major Parties Continues: Declare Your Independence
The exodus from the Democratic and Republican parties continues apace. According to a new analysis by USA Today, 2.5 million voters have left the ruling parties an registered as Independents since 2008:
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4 comments:
Thinking in the Greens
How's about only strategically supporting major party candidates if they support meaningful electoral reform, especially American forms of Proportional Representation that helps 3rd parties to check the undue influence of $peech on both major parties....
dlw
Having a D or R behind your name shouldn't, in my opinion, necessarily mean someone shouldn't consider voting for them, but it certainly is something to put on the cons column. Same with independents... not going to vote for one just because they have an 'I' behind their name. They have to be someone I'd like to see in office, and generally be in line with what I think.
Mimicking this sort of us or them stuff isn't what we need to do. Having higher standards in general... that's a start.
And DLW... most people aren't single issue voters. Electoral reform is a plus for most indies, but not enough if the rest of their platform isn't in line with the rest of our views. I'll be interviewing Buddy Roemer tomorrow to find out this very thing about him... is he a moderate, or a conservative with some interesting views on a handful of things like election reform? We'll see.
Sol,
I know most people are not single-issue voters(I'm not ideally.), but if there were one issue that would help to progress things on all of the other issues that we care about then there are strategic advantages to focusing our activist energies, as opposed to the typical third party approach on pushing a detailed platform/wish-list of things we'd want to do if we only had gobs and gobs of political capital.
It's not the natural course for politicos who've invested plenty of time and energy on lots of issues, but it might be smart politics under the reality of how the system we live in denies outsiders like us voice.
Good luck with your Interview!
dlw
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