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What Independents Want
NY Times ^ | November 5, 2009 | DAVID BROOKS

Posted on 11/06/2009 2:44:34 PM PST by neverdem

Liberals and conservatives each have their own intellectual food chains. They have their own think tanks to provide arguments, politicians and pundits to amplify them, and news media outlets to deliver streams of prejudice-affirming stories.

Independents, who are the largest group in the electorate, don’t have any of this...

--snip--

The most telling races this year were the suburban rebellions across the country. For example, in Westchester and Nassau counties in New York, Republican candidates came from nowhere to defeat entrenched Democratic county officials. In blue Pennsylvania, the G.O.P. won six out of seven statewide offices...

--snip--

The percentage of Americans who want unions to have less influence rose from 32 percent to a record 42 percent.

Americans have moved to the right on abortion, immigration and global warming. Over the past seven months, the number of people who say government is doing too many things better left to business has jumped from 40 percent to 48 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

According to that same survey, only 31 percent of Americans believe that the president and Congress “should worry more about boosting the economy even though it may mean larger budget deficits.” Sixty-two percent, twice as many, believe the president and Congress “should worry more about keeping the deficit down, even though it may mean it will take longer for the economy to recover.”

These shifts have not occurred because conservatives and liberals have changed their minds. They haven’t. The shift is among independents.

According to Gallup, the share of independents who describe their views as conservative has moved from 29 percent last year to 35 percent today. The share of independents who believe there is too much government regulation of business has jumped from 38 percent to 50 percent...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: davidbrooks; independents; independentvote; independentvoters; nj2009; va2009
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To: Impy

LOL

I use Chase CC for everything not actual paper money, cash rewards


21 posted on 11/07/2009 5:45:16 PM PST by sickoflibs ( "It's not the taxes, the redistribution is the government spending you demand stupid")
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To: neverdem

btt


22 posted on 11/07/2009 11:48:52 PM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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