...anyone who is a “swing” voter is plain old stupid.”
...couldn’t agree more. “Independent” means liberal. The Dem party is now solid socialist. Years ago we had blue dog, yellow dog etc. You cannot vote for the “right person” anymore.
“...anyone who is a ‘swing’ voter is plain old stupid.”
This may be true, but swing states are not necessarily full of swing voters. They are states that are more evenly split between left- and right-leaning voters. The issue in these states is turnout, which is directly correlated with voter motivation.
For example, as a demographic, black voters lean heavily toward the Democrat brand. They were more motivated to show up at the polls to support the first black president, partly because of what it meant symbolically. They were not at all motivated to vote for Hillary even if they did not particularly like Donald Trump.
“’Independent’ means liberal.”
That’s not always true. A lot of conservatives on this forum, including myself, quit identifying as Republican years ago because the GOP sold us out. We generally vote Republican, but some of us will not support a Mitt Romney or John McCain even if it means losing to a Democrat. (As a pragmatist, I personally voted for both when they were presidential nominees but, in retrospect, I don’t think I would do it again.)