Posted on 01/13/2023 5:47:24 AM PST by FarCenter
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans’ party preferences were evenly divided in 2022, with 45% of U.S. adults identifying as Republican or saying they were Republican-leaning independents, and 44% identifying as Democrats or saying they were Democratic-leaning independents. The last time preferences were this closely divided was in 2011, with Democrats holding at least a three-percentage-point advantage in each year of the past decade.
More generally, stretching back to 1991, when Gallup began regularly measuring party identification and leaning, Democrats have held an edge in most years.
The latest results are based on combined data from 2022 Gallup telephone surveys, which encompass interviews with more than 10,000 U.S. adults. In each survey it conducts, Gallup asks Americans whether they identify politically as a Republican, a Democrat or an independent. Independents are then asked a follow-up question about whether they “lean” more toward the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. The combined measure of partisan identification and leanings gives an indication of party strength in the U.S. population.
A virtual tie in party identification and leaning represents one of the better outcomes for the Republican Party over the past three decades. Only once, in 1991, after then-president George H.W. Bush led the successful Persian Gulf War, did significantly more Americans identify as or lean Republican (48%) than Democratic (44%).
(Excerpt) Read more at news.gallup.com ...
However, since 2009, independent identification has grown and reached levels not seen before. Now, political independents (41%) greatly outnumber Republican (28%) and Democratic (28%) identifiers.
In many states you have to be registered with one party or the other to vote in a primary. And you only get to vote for the party you are registered as. If one chooses to be an independent you are basically locked out of the primary’s. I would like to see states end that practice. There is a reason people register as independent...they don’t like either party’s platforms, who they run for office, etc.
I vote the person and their ideas...not necessarily the party...as do many people.
“Americans’ party preferences were evenly divided in 2022, with 45% of U.S. adults identifying as Republican or saying they were Republican-leaning independents, and 44% identifying as Democrats or saying they were Democratic-leaning independents.”
45% Pubs versus 44% Dems = Civil War. Just sayin....
“Now, political independents (41%) greatly outnumber Republican (28%) and Democratic (28%) identifiers”
That’s because it is politically and culturally safer to say you are an Independent. Less incoming flack from your fellow citizens. Better an alleged fence sitter rather than taking an ideological stand. In other words, a political coward or political expediency for a variety of reasons, like job security, etc. Called making oneself less of a target for vitriol and those choosing to act upon it to one’s detriment.
I think it is more because politics are more multivariate and people do not sort into only two bins.
Individual’s views on climate change, globalization, abortion, foreign policy, drug war, LGBTQ+, taxes, spending, regulation, surveillance, racial relations, crime, military interventions, vaccines, immigration, etc, etc, do not line up neatly with the orthodoxy of either party.
I’m glad parties shut out independent voters. No need for people confused as to their politics voting in the eventual candidate. And they can always run their own candidates for their party.
This is important. The feral government very carefully manipulates us all to keep the country almost perfectly evenly divided, so no change can actually occur that might threaten their graft.
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