The Myth of the Independent Voter
Lynch, Dotty
LEANERS & FOLLOWERS THE MYTH OF THE INDEPENDENT VOTER Bruce E. Keith, David B. Magleby, Candice J. Nelson, Elizabeth A. Orr, Mark C. Westlye, and Raymond E. Wolfinger University of California...
...CONTENTS -LIBRARY JOURNAL ROBERT JEWETT-"Life to the Dead" from the God of Tender Mercies JIM WALLIS-Life's Unlimited Value and our Limited Resources ROY I. SANO-Life and Peace: Antidote to Violence ROBERT F. DRINAN, S.J.-Food, the Basis of Life: An Appeal to Eliminate Hunger J. ROBERT NELSON-The Impact of Genetic Science on Theology GABRIEL FACKRE-Hope ISBN 0-8028-0637-6 Paper, 19.95 ' your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521...
...Hoover, Landon, Dewey, Eisenhower While this may express an American ideal, most American voters tend to stick with one party most of the time...
...At K25S JEFFERSON AVE...
...This is not to say the "image" of independents is not getting stronger or that more voters wish to think of themselves as free of party ties...
...the second is to individually explore the goals and realities of stewardship which actively confronts racism, violence, hunger, and questions of biomedical ethics...
...The data strongly support the premise that the rise of independents is a myth and that the apparent increase in their numbers has occurred mainly in a category people check on a questionnaire and not in reallife voting behavior...
...The authors have given us a helpful tool to analyze the voting intentions of independents-both pure and leaners-and to help us keep in mind that beyond the anger of the moment and the desire for "fundamental change," the twoparty system remains the dominant force in American voting choices...
...For analytical purposes the distinction between the "pure" and "leaning" independents is a gem...
...rose (between 1952 to 1990) from 23 percent to 36 percent, the number of "pure" independents rose only from 6 percent to 11 percent...
...There are many applications for the book's findings...
...This has changed a bit over the last ten years as scholars tended to see a better educated, more involved group of independents, and the focus on them as "swing voters" made them precious to political practitioners...
...To the "leaners" vs...
...However, they point out that while white Southerners do show some "dealignment," black voters have become more strongly attached to the Democratic party and are about the strongest partisans in the electorate...
...I think they could have shed some light on the independents to see if the appeals need to be targeted differently...
...This becomes significant because the rest of the book substantiates the analysis that the "independent leaners" are really quite partisan-and in some cases even more partisan than voters who classify themselves as Republican or Democrat...
...rise- of-independents notion is that this has happened among white voters in the South who have moved from the Democratic party in presidential elections but who aren't ready to align themselves with the GOP in name or in nonpresidential elections...
...The authors admit there was a small relationship between increasing alienation from the system and the increase in "pure independents," and this year's polling has shown a great leap in the number of voters expressing major dissatisfaction with the political system...
...With politics as usual and a pox on both your houses being the "story line" of the year (and the rationale behind the probable independent candidacy of Ross Perot), this election may-or may not-see a true rise in independents and a destabilization of partisan ties...
...Recommended...
...FAX 616-459-6540 WM...
...Modern political campaigns are based on the premise that all weak partisans and independents are susceptible to persuasion and that the willingness to split tickets is a given...
...The book begins by describing a Bill Mauldin cartoon from 1957 in which a man explains his outlook on politics...
...LEANERS & FOLLOWERS THE MYTH OF THE INDEPENDENT VOTER Bruce E. Keith, David B. Magleby, Candice J. Nelson, Elizabeth A. Orr, Mark C. Westlye, and Raymond E. Wolfinger University of California Press, $35, 220 pp...
...But the authors of this book-by using their analytical "bullet"-show that it is the "leaners" who are the more knowledgeable (especially those who "lean Republican") and conclude with the same low assessment of the civic virtue of pure independents that political scientists have expressed over the last forty years...
...The 1992 election will clearly be a test of this thesis...
...B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO...
...I wish these authors had spent a little more time on these aspects of "de-alignment...
...But for the practitioners-the candidate or pollster who knows that elections are often won by two or three points-the incremental increase in those voters who refuse to align with a party and will take cues almost exclusively from candidates and their individual campaigns is still quite important...
...El fe aso hert-y Li Life affoll"Ust Edited by IL Robert I%ii4son "This collection of six essays, originally presented as part of a religious/medical lecture series, has a twofold task: the first is to remind Christians of their rights and responsibilities as stewards of all that God has given them...
...Still, the book concludes with two chapters that try to associate various theories for this rise-even in label...
...GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 49503 223 Commonweal 22 May 1992: 25...
...One concession they do make to the 24: 22 May 1992 Commonweal "How did you apportion blame...
...the "pures...
...Data from studies of voting patterns have tended to show that independents have had lower rates of participation and less interest in and knowledge of politics than have partisans...
...For the journalist and pundit it is a terrific caution...
...However, in elections other than the presidential, voters will have only Democratic and Republican candidates to choose from...
...The essays are uniformly thoughtful, generally avoid jargon, and end on notes of call to action against particular social ills...
...Me, I vote the man not the party...
...Thus, while the claim to be "independent" has carried a certain cachet, the view of political scientists toward "independents" was decidedly negative...
...The authors reject both issues and alienation as explanations, and thus reenforce the notion of the basic stability of the two-party system over time...
Vol. 119 • May 1992 • No. 10
