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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Gallup: Record Percentage of Americans Identify as Independents

A record percentage of Americans (42%) identified as political independents in 2013, according to Gallup.

The percentage is “the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago,” and it has “come more at the expense of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party” as more conservatives in recent years have viewed the GOP as being hardly different from establishment Democrats.

Gallup notes that “Republican identification fell to 25%,” which is the lowest in that time span. Many independents are “leaners,” though–16% of independents sided with Democrats and another 16% leaned Republican. Democrats, taking leaners into account, had a six-point party identification advantage over Republicans.

Though “Republican identification peaked at 34% in 2004, the year George W. Bush won a second term in office,” it “has fallen nine percentage points, with most of that decline coming during Bush’s troubled second term” when Bush supported comprehensive amnesty legislation and the Wall Street bailouts that set up the groundwork for what would be the Tea Party movement.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I left the Republican party because of spineless establishment big international business butt kissers. They present Romney and Bush as alternatives to Hitlary. Hardly, at best they are Obama-lite. I did not join the "Independant' party because its platform is not conservative and is similiar to the Democrats. I am officially "Unaffiliated" on my voter card. When they create a "Conservative" party I will join that,but I am not holding my breath.

Anonymous said...

That's what an uninformed voter is, an Independent. If they take a political science class, they will suddenly become Dem or Rep, once they know the difference, and what it really means to be one or the other (platforms). Independents think that being one somehow makes a statement about the establishment. But if your not some part of the establishment, your are disenfranchised, and have no say in changing it.

Anonymous said...

12:32 Have no say in changing it? How deluded are you, oh yeah I'm sure you were encouraged to have independant thought processes by your Marxist teachers. Tool.