Mainstream Media -the usual suspects- go out of their way to disregard independents.
What do you think? Is this one of those strategically conceived cultural paradigms that social engineers deploy through paid articles and videos around the web and on TV and Radio? Or would you say it is just simplistic or even mediocre analysis by journalists who are not able to grasp American culture? Or are you one of those who actually think that independents in America are overrated or to a great extent irrelevant?
Most of the conspicuous articles you can find around the web about independents are dated around the presidential election campaign 2016. And the cultural-industrial complex was sure to sow the seed of distrust on the independent sector of politics, just like they do when they create insecurity in every other topic.
Gallup and Pew are two of the most cited authorities about independents in America based on their long standing surveys and interviewing methodologies. On 2015, according to Gallup a record 43% of Americans viewed themselves as independents, and by 2016 the number had decreased to 39%.
Keep in mind, right now Democrats are a small majority in America, and there are more independents who end up voting Republican than Democrat. Democrats are much more devoted to their party, at least when it comes to expressing it to a polling firm. But we all know that Dems are more of a social movement, with plenty paraphernalia and machinery and high media investment in cultural issues. On the paper and on the numbers, Republicans are promoters and protecters of individuality and family rights, of federalism and law, so they are less devout to any movement other than America herself, the Constitution or to their local communities -religious or laic-.
To a great extent, there are many independents who end up voting Republican as a means to vote against the Dems or their agenda.
During the 2016 election Pew produced a series of insights about independents in America. They listed 5 "facts" about us. "Facts" because we all know that saying something to a pollster is one thing and the objective action of a person is another. Yet we know that the word "fact" will be thrown around abundantly in the truth wars. So, Pew shows us that:
1- Independents outnumber Dems and Reps -however, most lean towards one party, when asked if they lean. Tricky!-.
2- When we lean, we lean in opposition to the other party.
3- When we lean, we don't especially relate to the members of the party. We feel somewhat outsiders, particularly about the politicians.
4- Animosity against the other party is at a two decade high. And that is extended to independents who lean towards a party. Independents, too, are polarized according to the proposed interviewing methodology by Pew.
5- Pew found a hypothetical correlation between leaning to a party and leaning to an ideology, ie, conservative or liberal. We will not deal with this conclusion here as it is a complete chapter and to some extent obvious, but we will leave a note to deal with conservatism and liberalism vis a vis independents in a later article.
Now, how does the Washington Post read the study from Gallup during the election cycle on January 11, 2016? Well they disregarded independents as a growing myth, supposedly because we lean towards a party, when asked if we lean. Even if we do, that was the reason for calling us a mythical creature of no relevance, like the ethical journalist of the mainstream media. They tell you tales about him, so that you don't go wondering to DC with independent intentions.
Meanwhile, the Nation turns us down as "just partisans" turned off by partisanship. Basically as idiots who don't know what they're doing, because we were asked a yes or no question by Pew -although this one went straight to citing the Washington Post about the study, and you know how it goes-.
Yet leave it to Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight -remember how he was during the election cycle?- to call us straight up overrated. This time, they went all the way to call us like that to say basically that Hillary Clinton losing independent voters was a non-issue. This piece of wisdom and truth was from September 15, 2016. Ha.
Yet there are a few who understand the importance about independents in America. Remember our poll, in which 88% of 7,000 twitter voters said they would have voted for Donald Trump if he had run as an independent, representing roughly 55 Million voters with a 2% error -although we had no access to the data and it was not conceived specifically as such-. Independents are THE political force of importance in America. And the fact that mainstream media disregards us as irrelevant even when around 40% of voters when asked just that view themselves as independents should speak volumes about the way we are played.
NPR did see a unaffiliated voters as important and let us know in February of 2016. Kudos to them, even if afterwards they lost it. They also touch an interesting point about independents which shall be dealt with eventually. One of the things that characterizes independents is that they usually don't have a say in choosing the candidates that make it to the general.
And the results were loud and clear. Independents played a major part in choosing the President of the United States of America, even if he chose to ran as a Republican. But this is what it's all about though, is it not? Americans are free. Americans are independent. We must not let ourselves be culturally abused by fake binary systems or coerced into a faux choice. If we don't understand our importance we will end up with just one party as we seem to have now, just without the courtesy of letting us think we can decide.
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