This has been reported on many times, and does not appear to have changed.
Few Americans Who Identify As Independent Are Actually Independent. That’s Really Bad For Politics.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fe ... -politics/
On the one hand, more Americans identifying as independent probably doesn’t seem like a bad thing. Independents are often portrayed as more open-minded and less dogmatic in their political views. And in a nation whose founders feared factional politics, the value of political independence is also an attractive one to many Americans.
The problem is that few independents are actually independent. Roughly 3 in 4 independents still lean toward one of the two major political parties, and studies show that these voters aren’t all that different from the voters in the party they lean toward. Independents who lean toward a party also tend to back that party at almost the same rate as openly partisan voters.
“Independents tend not to look all that different from partisans,” said Samara Klar, a political scientist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the book “Independent Politics.” “But they do tend to be more averse to identifying themselves as a partisan when there is a negative stigma associated with partisanship. So, it’s really the arguments, the hostility, the negativity that seems to be driving this behavior.”
[snip]
In fact, we’ve already seen some of the consequences of this, as elected officials from the two parties are increasingly far apart ideologically, both in Congress and at the state level. The abandonment of voters openly identifying with one of the two parties has led to less political engagement, which means Americans are exerting less influence on what the parties look and sound like. That’s a real problem since the parties are still the fundamental building blocks that organize our politics.
But with party building left to more stringent partisans, the parties’ bases have largely cultivated candidates who tend to be more ideologically extreme than the voters they seek to represent.
[snip][end]
One poli sci study showed Americans say they hate partisan bickering, but when they were showed a negative campaign ad they rated it as a great political ad. They hate partisan bickering, they hate negative campaigning,
so they say ... and yet there is a reason why campaigns run negative campaign ads ... the consultants
know they work. People SAY they hate these ads and they don't influence them, but the
reality is otherwise. Kind of reminds me of the people who say they are not affected by advertising for products on TV. I guess the ad agencies are spending billions on shit that doesn't work.
(P.S they may be short-horizon but they're not that dumb.)
It sort of reminds me of people who complain about boorish and angry behavior at sporting events toward fans of the other team, and then, of course do the same crap. And are caught on camera doing it.
Most independents, aren't what people really
mean by "independent".
Humans. I love 'em. May they never change.