Comments on: Year of the Independent Voter

By: gucci hobo

gucci hobo — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 13:43:00 +0000

I left the Republican party and refuse to join the Democrats because I am sick of them calling me, emailing me and sending letters requesting money every month. I made one large donation a couple years ago with the intent of doing so once a year.

By: twilight

twilight — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:17:55 +0000

It has been mentioned that some independents changed their party because they have been shamed by the party they were affiliated with. I was raised in a very staunch Irish Catholic Democratic family in NYS. The Democratic Party is not the Party I knew growing up. I registered republican a couple years ago. They are way to conservative. I am not liberal but more moderate. I left the Republican party and refuse to join the Democrats because I am sick of them calling me, emailing me and sending letters requesting money every month. I made one large donation a couple years ago with the intent of doing so once a year.

Now an issue I don't see either candidate is seeing. I moved to Kentucky 14 years ago from New York. I am from an area that was 60 miles of New York City. That area was totally dependent on IBM and Correctional facilities to empower the economy. IBM had told the State of New York that it would no longer be able to exist in NYS if they did not receive a tax break. New York thumbed their noses at IBM and now IBM has a mere skeleton crew in New York. They moved south. As a result, thousands and thousands of jobs were lost. Not just IBM, but the smaller businesses that depended on their business. They bought groceries in our stores, they ate in our restaurants, their children attended our schools. They owned and rented property. There are no jobs. Nothing.

Even the hospital in my hometown ceases to exist forcing residents to travel 10 to 15 miles to a hospital.

If our businesses are not given tax breaks, just how far south will they have to move to survive. I would rather pay higher taxes out of my middle class salary and keep my job than to lose it all together.

By: kevinh

kevinh — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:35:34 +0000

I'm pretty surprised that you didn't refer to the recent Pew report at all (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/773/fewer-voters-id...). Had you, it's pretty clear that the story isn't that independent voters are more important this year (isn't that what people say every year? Hasn't the Democratic strategy since 1992 been obsessed with independent voters, often to the detriment of "the base"?), but rather that fewer voters are identifying as Republican. The challenge then is different for the two candidates: McCain must appeal to those fleeing the disgraced Republican brand while at the same time gaining the trust of core cultural conservative Republicans who don't trust him, while Obama must take advantage of the opportunity to completely flip former Republican voters (the so-called "Obamacans") while hoping his post-partisan message is enough to solidify the support of Democrats who supported his primary opponents.

My only other comment, referring to rbe1 above, is that if even our good friends at TWI are using phrases like "McCain, with his almost trademarked maverick persona," it is not only the mainstream media who is contributing to this false frame of McCain-as-maverick. Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least three other Senators who have been regularly a maverick: Sens. Russ Feingold, Jim Jeffords, and Paul Wellstone.

By: rbe1

rbe1 — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:41:34 +0000

One can only hope that when the campaign gets underway, the mainstream media will challenge McCain on the multiplicity of reversals in his views on just about everything over the past two years, especially considering the fact that he prides himself as a man of integrity who doesn't change his policy views based on the chance to pick up a few votes.

By: twilight

twilight — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now an issue I don’t see either candidate is seeing. I moved to Kentucky 14 years ago from New York. I am from an area that was 60 miles of New York City. That area was totally dependent on IBM and Correctional facilities to empower the economy. IBM had told the State of New York that it would no longer be able to exist in NYS if they did not receive a tax break. New York thumbed their noses at IBM and now IBM has a mere skeleton crew in New York. They moved south. As a result, thousands and thousands of jobs were lost. Not just IBM, but the smaller businesses that depended on their business. They bought groceries in our stores, they ate in our restaurants, their children attended our schools. They owned and rented property. There are no jobs. Nothing.

Even the hospital in my hometown ceases to exist forcing residents to travel 10 to 15 miles to a hospital.

If our businesses are not given tax breaks, just how far south will they have to move to survive. I would rather pay higher taxes out of my middle class salary and keep my job than to lose it all together.

By: kevinh

kevinh — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m pretty surprised that you didn’t refer to the recent Pew report at all (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/773/fewer-voters-identify-as-republicans). Had you, it’s pretty clear that the story isn’t that independent voters are more important this year (isn’t that what people say every year? Hasn’t the Democratic strategy since 1992 been obsessed with independent voters, often to the detriment of “the base”?), but rather that fewer voters are identifying as Republican. The challenge then is different for the two candidates: McCain must appeal to those fleeing the disgraced Republican brand while at the same time gaining the trust of core cultural conservative Republicans who don’t trust him, while Obama must take advantage of the opportunity to completely flip former Republican voters (the so-called “Obamacans”) while hoping his post-partisan message is enough to solidify the support of Democrats who supported his primary opponents.

My only other comment, referring to rbe1 above, is that if even our good friends at TWI are using phrases like “McCain, with his almost trademarked maverick persona,” it is not only the mainstream media who is contributing to this false frame of McCain-as-maverick. Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least three other Senators who have been regularly a maverick: Sens. Russ Feingold, Jim Jeffords, and Paul Wellstone.

By: rbe1

rbe1 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

One can only hope that when the campaign gets underway, the mainstream media will challenge McCain on the multiplicity of reversals in his views on just about everything over the past two years, especially considering the fact that he prides himself as a man of integrity who doesn’t change his policy views based on the chance to pick up a few votes.