There seems to be a general notion that America is so polarised that there are Republicans and Democrats but nothing in between... How many Americans feel this way though, I wonder?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I've had strangers sneeringly "accuse" me of being one or the other, because of my actions. Rather than affirm or correct their assumption, I answer in similarly to this meme. Sometimes "reasonable" but sometimes "courteous" or "respectful" or "thoughtful" or whatever works best to describe myself other than in political terms.
Julie808
Level 8
May 15, 2021
2
About 8 to 10% of Independents are truly Independent. The rest lean left or right, according to the poles I Googled. Those folks who left the Republican party are not suddenly voting for Democrats and vise versa.
Sticks48
Level 9
May 15, 2021
1
Well over half lean towards Democratic Socialism and got fucking tired of the Clinton "New Dems" who took over the party and are pushing to get rid of the crooked bastards. I know a lot of them. Also you might want to look at the figures for new DNC voter registrations which after the last few Democratic primaries got fed up and stopped voting again. The New Dems have been blocking Medicare for all which 73% of ALL voters approve of as well as the Green New Deal which about 80* of left leaning voters want as well as a lot of Republicans. This explains why the dumb bastards keep losing and sticking us with freaks like GW and Trump as president...
Pretty much the same kind of stuff in Canada. Although you can find several political parties on your voting ballot and that five of them have elected members at the House, it's mostly an alternance between two right-wing parties at the top, the Liberals and the Conservatives.
More complicated in Quebec. The political game is played on two axis at the same time. On top of the usual left-right axis, there's also the Canadian federalists against the Quebec separatists.
QuidamOutrepont
Level 8
May 14, 2021
2
It’s the same in England, we have the Tories: pro business and corporation led economy, vs Labour pro workers and public services and then Liberals (which are very like the tories) and Greens, which no one really vote for because of the swing voting between the main 2.
It’s obvious to everyone that all of the aspects are important, but there’s this false notion that we have to choose between the 2 main parties and that somehow we can concentrate on business over workers or vice versa and that we can/ will leave the environment on the back burner to put one, or effectively both of the other issues first!
Music clip to accompany comment:
It’s madness I tell you!
girlwithsmiles
Level 8
May 14, 2021
2
Ryo1:
Hi there. I don't think that British society is hyper-polarised like American society. Our politicians still manage to sit at the same table to have debates politely. Lol We don't have riots on our streets as often as they do in America. When there is a state emergency, Brits are prepared to put each other's differences aside and unite to overcome it.
@Ryo1 in my experience we have the, ‘good old Boris’/ well I’m not going to vote labour, newspaper reading population and the, the only way forward is to vote Labour, the rich won’t share enough/ our public services are being run into the ground side.
It seems they are polarised enough that they undo much of each other’s good work, instead of coming up with good overall ideas. Whether it’s all a posturing act, or how they really feel sometimes seems questionable to me, as many of them are milking the benefits of their positions to the point of breaking policy, which makes me think that ultimately they are there for their own ends rather than that of the populace or Country.
Not many acknowledge, as Russell Brand recently pointed out, that there are many of the policies on both sides are very similar.
Covid has opened my eyes in other ways, personally, in that I’m amazed how many people don’t believe in it and the government guidelines. I still had a serviceman attending the house without a mask on last month!
Wish I felt differently, but there you go, party politics just feels like a big costly game to me.
Ryo1:
@girlwithsmiles The Labour Party led by Keir Starmer “Captain Hindsight" has definitely lost the plot.
@Ryo1 this post is bugging me now actually. I’m sure there are some great people that are public servants. Many of the roles are challenging and have a lot of responsibilities attached, so it’s not a day in the park.
When I was a public servant I usually gave my all to the roles, just like usual, I’m sure there are many benevolent people in the mix too.
It's like the 1860's, we have two groups in the US, patriots and traitors.
The traitors attacked Congress on January 6th.
I'll never identify with either party because parties change, for example when I was a kid the Republicans were the liberals and the Democrats were the conservatives.
They're there to represent me, I'm not here to represent them.
Willow_Wisp
Level 8
May 14, 2021
3
So what you are saying is we have the DNC Reagan Republicans and the GQP Nazis but "nothing in between?" Well we do have the progressives but both parties hate them and do their best to keep them from gaining more power which is why Joke Biden is swinging so far to the left... Why the fuck would anyone be stupid enough want a party half way between fascism and plutocracy?... That is completely unreasonable!
Lizard_of_Ahaz
Level 9
May 14, 2021
1
Ryo1:
Hi there. Well, I don't live in America, so I can't have any insight. However, I think I'm right in saying that many if not all social media are dominated by Americans and therefore are very America-centric. Often reading their comments on American politics, they seem very divided, black and white, no compromise, like they don't wanna know what each other thinks, let alone so readily bashing and insulting each other. I don't believe that all Americans are like that though, hence the meme I posted. Thanks for your input.
@Ryo1 Problem for us here is your political systems are often confusing for us as well. I mean who would think of a party calling itself "Labour" that hates working people?... And who can figure out what the Australians are up to anymore...
Ryo1:
@Lizard_of_Ahaz
Our Labour Party is in a big mess. I think I'm right in saying that they no longer represent the traditional labour supporters. Meanwhile, the Tory Party is centre right. Things tend to happen in moderation in the UK. When we make changes, it is more like evolution rather than revolution. Incidentally, the meaning of liberalism is different between the UK and the US.
@Ryo1 We used to have Torys here in the US but we deported them back to England where they would stop causing trouble...
I'm a registered independent, and have only voted one time. I voted Bernie in the democratic primary, because he seemed to be the only actual progressive. In the end he took money from progressive Americans, myself included, and then threw his support to corrupt corporate dems, twice. I'm not a single issue voter so if another progressive candidate comes along I'd probly vote for them. Our current system is fundamentally divisive and has no hope for change, when it comes to voting for idiot one or idiot two, I don't vote.
Tejas
Level 8
May 14, 2021
3
I think that there's a huge number that support this position (above) they're just not outspoken about it. Remember 71 million voted for Trump. 79 million for Biden...that total is only 150 million. The population of the US is at 332 million...so that means a whole mess of people are just the "reasonable" ones.
Robecology
Level 9
May 14, 2021
1
Many of those 182 million that didn't vote were kids.
@Willow_Wisp We know, after weeks of counting, that there were roughly 159 million ballots cast in the presidential election. According to the Election Project, this accounts for 66.7% of the eligible voting population of 239 million Americans. Since the population count in 11.2020 was around 330 million, that means around 90 million are unregistered...many if not most were children.
In any other part of the developed world, the Democrats would be considered a center right party. The Repuglicans have become a far right party. I don't consider myself as belonging to either party. I'm a socialist. I vote progressive, not for any party.
Theresa_N
Level 8
May 14, 2021
5
@Theresa_N Same here!
I'm registered Independent, but, honestly, I can't see myself voting for any Repug any time in the near future. I will vote alternative party locally, depending on platform, but until there is a chance they can actually win in a large election I will likely go Dem. I have no fondness for Corporate Dem's, but Repugs have just become too crazy for me to have anything to do w/ them.
phxbillcee
Level 10
May 14, 2021
4
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