The Moderate Voice - Latest Comments in The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

CStanley — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:25:30 -0000

Probably much easier to find things that 82% of Americans dislike or oppose, which is also probably why politics is often based around conjuring up negatives and fears.

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

Jazz — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:57:10 -0000

Ooooo... good one, OutOfContext! Hadn't thought of that!

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

OutOfContext — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:44:26 -0000

November 2001, President Bush 87% approval. CNN poll.

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

superdestroyer — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:28:46 -0000

runasim, there are actually fewer real individuals in that there are fewer people who will swing their votes between the two parties. If you ran a dead man for president and put (D) next to the name, the dead man would be about 45% of the vote. The equivalent candidate with (R) would get about 35% of the vote. That means a Republican presidential candidate needs to get most of the 20% of the vote that swings (actually less since they only need the swing voters in a few states).

As the demographics of the U.S. change, there will come a time when the automatic (D) number will be greater than 50%. People forget that one of the things helping Democrats is that blacks are voting at nearly the same rates as whites. If Hispanics voted at the same rate as whites, the Republican Party would be irrelevant today.

So the better question is what will dissatisfied people do when the U.S. is a one party state?

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

runasim — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:08:13 -0000

Moran makes a great point, partially because it falls in line with my thinking about Independents.
It's the consensus opinion that the rise of Independent voters is a good thing..
But who are they? Can they really enhance more centrism or will they bring more instability?

My ideal would be to have many more independent minded members in both major parties, rather than independent people estalibhsing a separate political space. Too many parties appear to undermine stability in countries that have them. I wonder if party-like groupings would have the same effect?

If the 82 % dissatisfied all registered as Indepencdents. What would that lead to?

Re: The 82% factor. Can’t we all just get along?

pacatrue — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:29:47 -0000

Vacation? Everyone likes vacation. Which means that the way to get people to think the U.S. is headed in the right direction is to give more time off.