Demexit is ongoing
Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 01/31/2018 - 6:14pm
This Gallup poll from a few weeks ago almost slipped past without being noticed.
Last year, 42% of Americans, on average, identified as political independents, erasing the decline to 39% seen in the 2016 presidential election year. Independent identification is just one percentage point below the high of 43% in 2014. Twenty-nine percent of Americans identify themselves as Democrats and 27% as Republicans.
All it takes is a quick glance at the chart to see where all these independents are coming from since 2009 (hint: they aren't former Republicans).
The dip in independent identification in 2016 and recovery in 2017 is a typical pattern for a presidential election year and the year after...However, the three-point increase in the proportion of independents in 2017 is larger than what Gallup typically has seen in the year after a presidential election.
...With a nearly record-high proportion of Americans identifying as independents in 2017, it follows that identification with the two major parties is near the historical low for each. In fact, the 29% of Americans who identify as Democrats ties 2015 as the lowest in Gallup's trend for that party. Republican identification (27%) is two points above its low of 25% in 2013.
More Americans typically identify as Democrats than as Republicans, but Democrats' two-point advantage in 2017 is on the lower end of Gallup's annual trend.
That poll comes two months after this CNN poll.
Favorable views of the Democratic Party have dropped to their lowest mark in more than a quarter century of polling, according to new numbers from a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
Only 37% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Democrats, down from 44% in March of this year. A majority, 54%, have an unfavorable view, matching their highest mark in polls from CNN and SSRS, CNN/ORC and CNN/USA Today/Gallup stretching back to 1992.
Essentially, 2017 was a car wreck for the Democrats. But they have still managed to maintain their corporate donors, and that's what counts it seems.
Maybe if Dems just keep lecturing us about bipartisanship, being pragmatic, and how we can't have Medicare For All until racism and sexism is eliminated from the Earth, then all those independents will realize what a mistake they made.
Comments
If ever there was a time.
We're in as rich of an opportunity as ever for a new party.
Unfortunately, those who might do it are cowards tied to the system as is.
Nothing will change. Politics as usual as the true independents and progressives are left with nothing but a protest vote.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
If you don't vote you are less than pond scum
According this dweeb. He goes on to say that the republicans are soulless creatures who are doing great damage to the country without once mentioning that the democrats are just as complicit. Boy did he get screwered in the comments. Looks like another kook aide drinker who has the biggest blinders on. Sheesh!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
What the hell
are "vote-and-run voters"?
To say the author got skewered in replies would be a laughable understatement.
I would have to ask him if I voted for trump because I didn't vote for hillary.
I didn't vote for trump so I must have voted for hillary.
I'm so confused because I voted and lost.
Thanks for the link.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Some good comments under that piece of bullshit.
That argument usually comes from the democratic party side of the house, as this one does with his reference to Obama. I've asked before, OK, what if I voted for Trump. Am I better than non-voters? Of course they have to say yes but it screws up their entire premise that if only more people would vote, the democratic party would win and everything would be hunky dory.
The other argument that non-voters have no say in anything because they did not participate brings up the counter argument that those who do vote for these criminals are responsible for their actions. Of course again, those making this argument aren't able to grasp what that means because they support U.S. imperialism.
I like his response to the people who voted for Obama
In other words, when Obama continued the bloodshed in the Middle East don't have a problem with it. Apparently we can only be against the wars if it's a republican doing that. Again, anyone who was critical of Obama's actions should shut the Hell up.
IIRC, most of these groups were against the wars and wanted universal health care and environmental protections. The BLM wanted cops to stop killing people, yet Obama was against universal health care, he opened up more areas for drilling and was silent on the police brutality. Gee, let's stand behind him on those issues.
Contact them and feel the elixir that comes when hope and action kiss.
I have no idea what this even means, but hoping that our votes will change anything is naive. In my humble opinion. We tried Hope and where did that get us?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
No Hope and more of the Same
from Mr. Hope and Change. God, I wish the Democratic party would finally die. These people are completely bereft of any ideas other than "we are not Rethugs" which in most cases they are exactly like Rethugs with a slightly nicer social agenda as long as it does not impact their donor base. In many ways, they have become worse than the Rethugs when it comes to regime change and wars of opportunity.
It is depressing. I feel like I am wandering in the wilderness with no real home. I have come to hate them all. But I hate the Dems even more than Rethugs because they continually lie to us. At least we all know where the Rethugs stand, as odious as it may be.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Oh I just couldn't leave that alone
My problem with voting for one of the two major party candidates last time (and every time most likely) is that were I to cast a vote for either one I would be explicitly endorsing things like war crimes, mass slaughter, poverty, disease and death. I’m sorry but I’m simply not willing to sign my name on that bottom line. I understand the logic of lesser-evil voting but I’m not evil enough to do it.
So instead, I voted for a candidate who had no chance to win but who stood against evil rather than for it. And for this I’m being morally chastised? If you’re not a centrist, you might call that “having principles”.
Personally I wasn't aware that centrists had any sort of morality or ethics. Isn't that what makes them centrists?
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I find Republicans repulsive.
I find Democrats embarrassing.
I am not finding any reason to go vote, other than I have a particular interest in a couple of races for judge at the county and district level, maybe a district clerk's race.
My state representative is a Republican who is all fracking all the time guy, supported by his oil co. donors. The democratic party candidate called me, said he had 30 years monitoring fracking chemicals, and we must ensure the chemicals are used "appropriately" and "in the correct amounts". He is being funded by the Democratic Party.
I told him I truly appreciated his policy of poisoning his constituents more slowly and methodically than his Republican opponent. He then asked me to get together, help him hone his message.
My response was something like this, as I can't remember it verbatim:" You want me to help you find some magic words and phrases that deflect from your policy goal that will kill your constituency eventually? I am really too busy. Please don't kill me and my family and neighbors, sir."
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cuspThe democratic party
The guy called you? Why did he call you?
why Dems still call us
Even after DemExit, I still get occasional contact.
I think some of the Dem candidates are looking for support among ex-Dem indies.
John Hickenlooper (governor, D-CO) had best not be calling me in this regard. He'd get an earful, as I'm wholeheartedly in favor of legal "recreational" marijuana, which he opposes.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I used to be the "go to" person
to help candidates from out of county learn who the movers and shakers are here.
I also helped them answer polling questions, and write speeches.
A friend is running for county judge as a democrat and he gave this state rep candidate my name and number, with my permission. Apparently, the party is helping them.
I can't remember this man's name, but my friend is Earl Brown, the first African-American to run for County Judge in San Jacinto County, Texas.
He is a former Mayor of the City of Shepherd, Texas. My office staff notarized Earl's filing to run for election.
Any other questions?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp To be honest, I don't
To be honest, I don't know you thus I don't know your status or roles.
Generally, when a candidate is calling someone, it is a big donor.
And I can't tell if you are being snippy/sarcastic or genuinely asking that. Again, I don't know you really so can't gauge the mood.
You questioned why I would get a personal call.
I explained why.
Any other questions?
Do I have to get into the fact that every time I see Earl, we hug? That I am his family lawyer for decades?
That we trust each other implicitly and that he really wants Democrats to take back Texas government from Republicans?
If anyone was being genuinely snippy, it was you for taking what I say about my town of 800, my county of 23, 000 and I have lived here 65 years, picked so many juries I can't count them, and I know everybody, and everybody knows this. Thus, I get personal calls from candidates from both parties.
E.J. Bailes, III is this Democrat's opponent, and I have represented E.J Bailes II in a lawsuit, and my Dad and E. J. Bailes were good friends, and E. J. III married a Hightower, and Jim Hightower, the ultimate Texas Democrat (he has a blog and we all love him, don't we?) and his relative, a Texas Representative, Allen Hightower,(I am friends with 2 district judges, Democrats, that are Allen and Jim's cousins) and Democrats, BIG DEMOCRATS, stayed out of this race.
Now.
Any questions?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cuspYou questioned why
Actually I asked why you got a call from the Dem candidate. You didn't mention anything about it being a personal call or anything of that sort. That came later, thus somehow you thinking that I was going to know anything of that sort is odd.
No.
So much information that no one knew except you. All you said was that the Dem candidate called you. Considering the fact that the average American citizen does not get calls from elected officials or candidates, it was something I thought about asking. Which, from there you took to the extreme for utterly no reason except to act offended that someone had the audacity to ask you.
I will repond to this by pm
so as not to hijack the thread.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
My outsider view on this?
It appears to me like neither one of you had any sort of ill-intention at all but in the medium of text, the emotional content got garbled and so we ended up... well... here. I hope it gets resolved easily in IM.
A few decades ago I would've been hip when I offered up, "Take a chill pill man"
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
I once got a personal phone call from a sitting Senator.
I was in grade school and there was an "extra credit" question which was: "what are the golden fleece awards"? I called the library to see if they could direct me. A day later Senator William Proxmire called me personally and explained what it was. My parents were stunned! Unfortunately it didn't turn them from the Republican party!
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
Great comeback
People like that are just amazingly stuupid.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Damn Russians!
Even Gallup is now Putin's puppet!
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
It's exactly for comments like that
That this site desperately needs a "Two thumbs up" button also. Sometimes, as in this case, one thumb up simply isn't enough.
You should float that idea over at DKOS. I'm sure a bit of research would turn up some meeting someone employed or associated with Gallup had at some point with someone who was in some way connected with Russia. You could find a few of those. Then draw a scary chart showing a spider web of interconnections. Then present the Gallup poll highlighting all the pro-Putin positions with some carefully mature and intellectual positions meticulously crafted to incense and inflame.
I'm guessing you'd get some real love from that community.
This just in direct from real life:
Wife: You know, it's not every wife who would help you with [insert appropriately intimate and sordid detail here]. (She was definitely right, by the way).
Me: It's not my fault. Vladimir Putin made me do it. And now, by helping me, you have also become an unwitting Putin stooge.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Wait until progressive primary candidates are cheated/lose.
Establishment neoliberal/right wing democrats have more a grip on party power than even under Clinton. At the national and state level they will cheat progressives. The democrats will suppress their own base, and next year, they will lose more registered party members.
It's a given.
And it's already happening.
In a way it might be a good thing. Instead of revolting against a party, we can revolt against the machine.
Burn it down.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
43% Of Americans Think Both Parties Suck
Sounds about right to me. After the 2018 primaries that percentage should increase. The problem is that there is no way to break into the political system. In the last L.A. Mayoral race 20% of eligible voters bothered to show up, which was almost a record low turnout:
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-los-angeles-mayor-elect...
So 80% of eligible L.A. voters know both choices sucked and Garcetti is using that election as a springboard to run for President.
I'm probably going to see what The Green Party is fiddling around with just for shits and giggles. Maybe we can draft Chris Hedges or Jimmy Dore for Green Presidential nominee. I'm grasping at straws here, but it seems like a very large number of American voters are looking for a genuine choice to vote for.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Politicians should call themselves anything but Democrat or
Republican. Both are tarnished brands. On the plus side for Republicans:
1. Since 2010, they have been far more successful than Democrats.
2. They have an actual message, as opposed to "Not only are we not Trump or Republicans, but we offer you the opportunity to aspire to the values of Democratic politicians-- at least as we speak them. (Our actual behavior, including legislative behavior, may be a different matter.)"
3. They are somewhat more honest about their deference to the very rich and somewhat less hypocritical than Democrats.
On the plus side for Democrats:
1. They actually are not Trump or Republicans, although, in terms of outcomes, they may not be as different from Trump and Republicans as they pretend to be.
However, both brands are corrupt and tarnished. Unfortunately, one or the other of them will probably be your state and federal representative, your state and federal Senators, your state and federal judges, your Governor and your President.
If you live in solidly red or solidly blue state, voting for the candidates of a newer party seems to me to be a no brainer. I suggest Green, for a number of reasons, including that the only other parties that are national parties are the two tarnished brands and Libertarian, which to me is a Republican Party that doesn't even want to pay taxes for "defense."
If you live in a purple city, county or state, you may have to drill down deeper into both statistics and your own decision making process/conscience.
I mentally Demexited back in 1980
when the Raygun Curse cheated its way in. I live in a backwards closed primary state so I register D so I can vote in the primary. I get very few political robo-calls. It's probably cos I worked in Sanders' campaign. I sure hope so.
Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Good to know that so many others
like me changed their registrations. After 40 plus years of being a registered Dem, I went into the clerks office and switched to Independent last fall. The only problem is that now I can't vote in a primary, but odds are that the Dems in KY will give me no reasons to mourn that loss.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
Trump's Popularity Rockets!
All the way to 42%!
New Poll Shows Frightening Jump in Trump Approval Rating Since December
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/new-poll-shows-frightening-ju...
Typical clickbait headline. What the poll suggests to me is how poorly Democrats and the media are doing at fighting back against The Trump's tweets and policy messaging. Monumental fracking losers.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
It's heartening to see the decline of the Democratic party
...continues apace.
I was genuinely concerned that they'd be able to pull off the McResistance sufficiently well to stem that tide and maybe even reverse it.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard