National Politics
By Amy Walter, January 15, 2014
The Myth of the Independent Voter
Last week, Gallup released polling that showed a whopping 42 percent of Americans identified themselves as independent - the highest percentage ever recorded by the polling institution.
"Americans' increasing shift to independent status has come more at the expense of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party."
In other words, these one-time GOP-identified voters are now identifying themselves as independents. This is what helps to explain how Republicans can win the independent vote and still lose an election.
More important, however, is the misconception that these voters are embracing an "independent " status because they want their party to pursue a more moderate agenda, or to move to the middle instead of catering to the extreme. In fact, there is evidence that they are abandoning their party labels for the exact opposite reason: they see the party as moving too far from its core values.
In other words, those who call themselves "independent" may actually be closer to the views of the core GOP or core Democratic policy positions than even those who identify themselves as a party member.
http://cookpolitical.com/story/6608
Threaded Mode
