Pew: Independents moving anti-incumbent!
The PEW Research Center reports:
But the allegations swirling around Congress may be fueling the political discontent of independents, who are unhappy with Congress in general and, in many cases, with their own representative in particular.
Last month, 36% of independent voters said they don't want to see the incumbent in their district reelected. This is as high as in October 1994 (34%), shortly before the historic 1994 midterm when Democrats lost control of Congress.Anti-incumbent sentiment is also up among Democratic voters - 31% today believe their representative should not be reelected compared with around 20% in previous midterms, including 1994 when the GOP gained control of Congress.
There is, however, no increase in anti-incumbent feelings among Republican voters, just 18% of whom say their representative should not be reelected.
The link has all the stats and charts.
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Comments
We have tried everything else. So, why not try the one obvious, simple, common-sense, safe, peaceful, and responsible thing we were supposed to do all along?
Vote out irresponsible incumbents, always, every election?
It is not as important who we vote for, as it is whether they will be responsible after being elected. Experience is not as important as transparency and accountability. What good is experience if it is used mostly for self-gain?
It is not that voters are all very bad judges of character. It is what happens after newcomers are elected. Newcomers, always outnumbered by corrupt incumbents, can not pass any badly-needed, common-sense reforms, and succumb to the status quo.
So, having tried all sorts of strategies, schemes, parties, etc., why not try common-sense? In the end, that is really the only thing that will ever really work.
Take off the partisan blinders, reject the partisan warfare, do yourself a favor, and do the right thing every election: vote out irresponsible incumbents, always, until it is crystal clear who should be re-elected?
Right now, it's damn hard to know who (if anyone) is responsible? Why? Because they have perverted the system so badly, voters can't tell. Just like a 10,000 page, pork-laden BILL, full of pork-barrel, graft, corporate welfare, and ear-marks to bribe voters with the voters' own money. Who can tell why anyone voted for or against the BILL? Such clever over-complications are ramptant in D.C., and getting worse. Politicians have golden parachutes. The voters will suffer most for the corrupt government, and their negligence to do the one simple thing to keep it from growing so corrupt.
Posted by: d.a.n | March 22, 2006 10:22 AM
BTW, it is interesting that Independents seem to scrutinize things more than the two main party voters.
Posted by: d.a.n | March 22, 2006 10:25 AM
Interesting and quite likely, revealing, Dan. It says to me that those American voters who truly seek to cast an informed vote, are by virtue of their analytical abilities driven from the Dem. and Rep. parties by their treatment of voters as children in need of good parental propaganda.
Posted by: David R. Remer | March 23, 2006 12:26 AM