Posted on 01/08/2014 11:14:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.
The results are based on more than 18,000 interviews with Americans from 13 separate Gallup multiple-day polls conducted in 2013.
In each of the last three years, at least 40% of Americans have identified as independents. These are also the only years in Gallup's records that the percentage of independents has reached that level.
Americans' increasing shift to independent status has come more at the expense of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. Republican identification peaked at 34% in 2004, the year George W. Bush won a second term in office. Since then, it has fallen nine percentage points, with most of that decline coming during Bush's troubled second term. When he left office, Republican identification was down to 28%. It has declined or stagnated since then, improving only slightly to 29% in 2010, the year Republicans "shellacked" Democrats in the midterm elections.
Not since 1983, when Gallup was still conducting interviews face to face, has a lower percentage of Americans, 24%, identified as Republicans than is the case now. That year, President Ronald Reagan remained unpopular as the economy struggled to emerge from recession.
(Excerpt) Read more at gallup.com ...
I identify as “conservative” NOT “republican”. The only reason I keep my GOP registration is to try to impact the primaries. (A lot of good that does me in Marxist CA!)
Interesting that 47% lean democrat or are democrat. That number sounds familiar ...
I wonder, if there was a “Conservative” party what the numbers for identification with that would be?
I am a Conservative Independent after a lifetime of being screwed by the republican party.
Sounds like they really fear a conservative takeover when they want to delay legislative action until after the primary filing deadline.
They need to experience “other” consequences if they make it impossible to hold them accountable at the ballot box.
Two reasons:
1. Failure to articulate a coherent and sensible alternative to socialism;
2. The communist media/entertainment propaganda complex.
Right now, the average American doesn’t really know what they want. They really don’t have the inclination to intelligently sift through the issues. They also don’t have the backbone to make a hard decision and say “No” to people who want candy land, ham trees, 0bamaphones and a consequence free lifestyle. Other than that, they only know they don’t like what they have now, and are tired of being lied to.
Never before have the American people been so lost, and in so need of a clear vision that they can rally around. Unfortunately, we have been so balkanized into separate special interest groups, I don’t know that we can ever come together again as American.
I’m not a Republican, I am a conservative with strong libertarian leanings.
Good!
Hopefully a whole buncha real Americans among them !!!!!!!
Semper watching
*****
Hmm. What happened in 1989????????
Hmmm. Wasn’ that the year Bush I took over from ROnald Reagan????
Do I see a trend here????
With the two parties now incapable of doing anything other than get in pissing contests it’s not a surprise the mushy middle is growing.
I’m an ex Repub.
Forced into the independent column by totally inept cojone-less country club idiots. Boehner et al can assume room temp not soon enough.
Doesn’t matter. The fix is in for Hillary.
There is a “Conservative” party....http://americanconservativeparty.org/....but, really the conservatives need to regain control of the GOP...not give up.
In five years, the Democrat party has proven to be incapable of governing. All areas of foreign policy are screwed up. All areas of domestic policy are screwed up. And the Republicans are afraid.
The Democrats are on the floor with the referee giving them the ten-count, and the Republicans are desperately trying to crawl under them while yelling at the ref that they went down first. Remarkable.
I’m a registered Whig.
Were not even on the chart.
> if there was a “Conservative” party
I registered with the Conservative Party 4 years ago, but found out it mostly supported Democrats and a few RINOs.
Two months ago, I ditched the Conservatives and registered as a Whig. Not a lot of Whigs out there, but they’re growing.
I know for sure that people in Texas are calling themselves independents now instead of Republican. I can’t give a percentage because our method of party ID is different than other states - maybe not all other states as I don’t know.
Here, you party designation begins when you vote in a party’s primary. If you vote in the Democrat Primary, that is stamped on your voter registration card and you are a Democrat until the next primary election two years from then. At that next primary time, if you vote in the Republican Primary, that is stamped on your voter card and you remain that until the next primary election. The general election in November has no bearing on which party you are and you may vote for any candidate, Republican or Democrat or mix them up, it doesn’t matter.
If you don’t vote in either party’s primary, you have no designation on your voter card and you never get one, therefore no one can be identified as an Independent.
Other parties outside Democrat and Republican, say Libertarian, must have their convention in the summer after the Democrats and Republicans have theirs, and they choose their candidates then (they don’t have a primary). They are not subject to the candidate filing deadline for Democrats and Republicans.
A count could be made now of how many Democrats and Republicans voted in their last primary, but those numbers are subject to change at the next primary.
If you move into Texas you cannot register as anything until there is a primary and then you get automatically labeled according to the primary in which you vote.
That is the way it is in Texas.
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