Comment by groby_b

6 hours ago

"indepdendent" does not mean "i see all parties as absolutely the same".

It means "I am not firmly affiliated". You still have the ability to make choices on who is a better likely outcome

That only matters of you actually do make different choices. But of course in turn even trying to control for that depends on their being meaningful changes in party platforms between elections.

So I'm pretty content calling it a meaningless measure.

This is correct. That is why I changed from independent to an actual political party. There is no point, it is highly improbable that I would ever vote for the party that is against my values. The two main US political parties are diametrically opposed.

  • No, they each manufacture consent for capital interests in a race to the bottom for everybody else, using time-tested good cop / bad cop, revolving door corruption, etc.

  • So, vote for a third party. If you don't actually like the candidate you vote for, you're engaging in political negligence. When I vote, I almost never vote for a Republican or Democrat candidate because they are, by and large, not people I want representing me. So I vote for someone I do want representing me.

    • That can work, if you are strategic about it. If your candidate is polling at 5%, you might as well have not voted at all.

      Something I read once, probably 50 years ago now: you may not see a candidate you want to vote for, but you will probably see a candidate you want to vote against.