Majority Say Senate Should Remove Trump
EMichael: I don’t understand why people have such a hard time believing that there is no such thing as an “independent” voter. Sure, a lot of people register as an independent, but that certainly does not mean they vote for one party or the other depending on the candidates and/or circumstances.
Plenty of studies have shown that independent voters are even more loyal to one party or the other than party registered voters. In other words, when they vote, they vote for just one party.
And polls show the exact same thing whenever they appear. Like this:
“The new poll also finds majorities of Americans view each of the charges on which Trump will face trial as true: 58% say Trump abused the power of the presidency to obtain an improper personal political benefit and 57% say it is true that he obstructed the House of Representatives in its impeachment inquiry.
Massive partisan gaps continue to dominate views on Trump and his impeachment trial. Overall, 89% of Democrats say he should be removed from office, while just 8% of Republicans feel the same way. Among independents, it’s nearly dead even: 48% say the Senate should vote to remove him, while 46% say that they should not. Views on whether Trump should be impeached and removed are also evenly split across battleground states, 49% are on each side across the 15 states decided by 8 points or less in 2016. Those states are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.”
CNN poll: 51% say Senate should remove Trump from office
What this means is that half of independent voters are Dems and half are Reps. It shows the folly in attempting to attain independent votes desires, which always leads to a centrist stance. Dems need to cater to their progressive goals, and the half of the independents who are really Dem voters will follow along. And half of the independents who are Rep voters will shy away. It’s not like they are going to vote Dem in their lifetime.
Appealing to independents does not necessarily lead to centrist positions. Traditional Democratic Party (and progressive) positions are overwhelmingly popular: raising minimum wage, more progressive taxation, support for labor unions, preserving (at minimum) Social Security benefits, universal health insurance and a Medicare option, reasonable gun controls.
If something is popular, that automatically means it is the centrist position. All that needs to be done to maximize independent support is support (and loudly proclaim support for) traditional, liberal Democratic positions. Remember that even Bernie Sanders said the Democratic platform in 2016 was the most progressive ever; it seemed to take about two minutes for Clinton and Sanders to agree to it, and except for raising the proposed Federal minimum wage for Clinton’s proposed $12/hr to Bernie’s $15, the “most progressive platform ever” was barely distinguishable from Clinton’s.
Albeit from the opposite perspective, this is the same mistake that Third Way and the DLC make: assuming without regard for actual public opinion that the centrist position is some point halfway between the official Democratic position and the Republican position. If Republicans want to cut Social Security benefits by 10%, hey, we will propose cutting it only 5% and the independent voters will appreciate our reasonable approach showing we are the adults in the room. Even if “going progressive” doesn’t mean adopting all the positions of the most progressive wing, that kind of weakness a recipe for losing.
Simple rule for Democratic candidates: at least be a Democrat, not someone halfway in between who seems to stand for nothing.