{"id":40500,"date":"2014-01-08T07:52:58","date_gmt":"2014-01-08T14:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/08\/the-largest-political-party-is-none-of-the-above.html"},"modified":"2014-01-11T12:55:42","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T19:55:42","slug":"the-largest-political-party-is-none-of-the-above","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/08\/the-largest-political-party-is-none-of-the-above.html","title":{"rendered":"The largest political party is "None of the above""},"content":{"rendered":"
That’s actually been the case for a while, but the trend seems to be accelerating, with Independents now at 42%, Dems at 31%, and Republicans at 25%. Most of the folks shifting over to\u00a0“Independent” are coming from the Republicans (the Democrats aren’t doing all that hot, but have been stable the past few years).The big question is what this actually means for elections. Certainly nobody can win without a chunk of that Independent plurality, but it makes primary and other party-focused contests more dependent on the extremes. And is the\u00a0change only label-deep, with folks unhappy over calling themselves Republican but still identifying with GOP political positions? \u00a0Does it make parties — the GOP in particular — that much more dependent on big money donors?\u00a0Does it increase pressure for open primaries? Does it make that much difference when people tend to vote for incumbents, and “hate” Congress but “love” their Congressman?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents<\/a><\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s actually been the case for a while, but the trend seems to be accelerating, with Independents now at 42%, Dems at 31%, and Republicans at 25%. Most of the folks shifting over to\u00a0“Independent” are coming from the Republicans (the Democrats aren’t doing all that hot, but have been stable the past few years).The big … Continue reading “The largest political party is "None of the above"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,533],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-demographics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":130074,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/03\/those-who-pretend-to-forget-history-will-keep-pretending-they-havent-12.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":0},"title":"Those who pretend to forget history will keep pretending they haven't","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Mar-16 4:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"No, the KKK is not a \"leftist\" organization, or a \"progressive\" movement. I strongly suspect a survey of contemporary KKK members will not find many Democrats among their number. But we hear this argument all the time, alongside the \"Republicans were the champions of civil rights in the 60s because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32495,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/10\/colorado-gop-struggles-with-being-kinda-sorta-two-parties.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":1},"title":"Colorado GOP struggles with being (kinda-sorta) two parties","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Feb-13 11:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"You've got the business \/ budget \/ taxation conservatives who want to pass bills to grow the economy and cut taxes and make it easier for businesses to do whatever they want.And you've got the evangelical \/ Bible-thumping \/ social conservatives who want to teach creationism in school, ban abortions,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135518,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/04\/republicans-go-roy-moore-donald-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":2},"title":"The Republicans go all-in with Roy Moore (and Donald Trump)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Dec-17 11:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Republican National Committee will transfer funds to the Alabama Republican Party following President Donald Trump's endorsement Monday of GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in that state's special election next week, according to a senior RNC official. The official added, \"The RNC is the political arm of the president and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/trump-moore.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15847,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/20\/welcome-the-history-of-us-civil-rights-revised.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":3},"title":"Welcome the History of US Civil Rights (Revised)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Sep-09 9:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure which of the flaming idjits in the Texas Board of Education is speaking in these videos, but his contribution to that board's effort's to rewrite Texas (and, through its buying clout, the rest of the nation's) textbooks coverage of American History is ... well, it would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10721,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/10\/ideology_vs_consensus_vs.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":4},"title":"Ideology vs. Consensus vs. Competency vs. Corruption","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Nov-06 8:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"The post-mortems abound ... It's fascinating watching the debate going on within the GOP about who \"lost\" the election. Everyone has their own axe to grind in this, and the...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2525,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/10\/goofiness.html","url_meta":{"origin":40500,"position":5},"title":"Goofiness","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Jun-02 1:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Republican activists are compiling dossiers of lobbyists to identify which ones are Republicans, which are Democrats, and how they have been making personal contributions to candidates in the past. The...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40762,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40500\/revisions\/40762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}