From Firedoglake:
1) Those “centrists,” the people who can be convinced to swing Democratic in one election and Republican in the next, who don’t make up their minds until the night before an election or just run in the voting booth and pull all the top levers are probably not engaged in the political dialog to the point that they will want to “interact” with those who bring them their news. They might be stupid, apathetic or working three McJobs just to make ends meet but they’re probably not going want to spend their leisure time shootin’ the shit with VandeHei. People who are engaged political junkies tend to have strong opinions and they want to interact online with others who are like minded. If there were a great gaping demand for a moderate site, Joe Gandelman would be a rich man.
Ahem. Just a quick thought or two…
“Centrist” does not, by definition, mean independent, and a moderate may or may not be a centrist.
Furthermore, they are not inherently undecided, and assuming them to be stupid, apathetic, or working three McJobs demonstrates an astounding myopia.
Not only that, but anyone with strong opinions who goes online simply to interact with the like-minded is functioning in an echo-chamber. This is ignorance by choice.
Being “independent” requires rationality and open-mindedness. A brain.
Just sayin…
Some of us extreme centrist moderates happen to believe that neither side is right and that truth is where you find it.
Ideologues on the other hand couldn’t see the truth is it walked up and hit them in the face.
It might not to you, but to the zealous radicals on both sides, it very likely does.
I would contend that these are not only attributes of independents. I happen to feel that being a conservative involves the same qualities, and I am equally certain that my colleagues with a liberal bent feel the same way (about being a liberal, of course.) Of course, there are those (zealots) from all parts of the political spectrum who lack both rationality and open-mindedness (normally identified by the fact they can’t carry on a civil conversation with anyone who has different viewpoints), but I wouldn’t automatically drop liberals/Democrats or conservatives/Republicans down that hole.
~EdT.
I wouldn’t either. On the other hand, zealots who mistakenly assume that to be independent, centrist, or moderate equates to apathy, stupidity, or a Mcjob rut not only belongs in the hole, they earned the shovel that dug it.
As a life-long Independent, I totally agree with your thoughts, Polimom. It never made sense to me to follow a party’s line for party’s sake. I don’t give a damn what party a person belongs to as long as he/she makes sense and isn’t too extreme in their thinking.
Throwing around labels in the media with polls and generic discussion often results in the use of ”independents”, ”centrists”, and ”moderates” to mean the same general group of people out there that claim no firm stake in either political party. What the media often ignores is that within this great “middle” of people, you can still have liberals and conservatives. And why someone who is going to vote straight party ticket has to be an ”extreme” person is not clear, but that is the group they are put in.
Each election year, it is brought up the “growing” number of Americans that claim no party affiliation. I think what the guy was getting at is that this growth is not all just in people unsatisfied with party candidates. It is also in people who really just don’t pay enough attention to the news to have an opinion either way. There needs to be a fourth group of people that is never shown in polls. After Republicans, Democrats, and Undecided, there needs to be a “Don’t Care” group, because in reality, there is a large number of Americans that really don’t. Sure, they have opinions on issues, but these people will be proud if they turn out to vote for one president in their lifetime.