The disconnect of politicians and people has grown
by SixShutouts66 (2024-02-28 17:13:55)

In reply to: I'm starting to feel personally put out  posted by El Kabong


I saw a Gallup poll had 43% of voters claiming to be independent rather than members of either major party. I suspect that a sizable majority of the independent voters may still be single-party voters, rather than swing voters. However, this statistics seems to indicate a level of unhappiness with the major parties, especially as the parties have swung from the traditional center.

Admittedly political leaders should be leading towards the "right path" and not merely following the opinions of party members. It's easy to see the disconnect between politicians and voters in the Republican party; however, many similar tensions exist in the Democrat party. I see this living in California (Governor Newsom, for all my complaints, has moderated some of the desires of the legislature). I hear some of the dissatisfaction from my wife, the lifelong Democrat - daughter of a union member.

Some of the fissure points, where members are uniformly aligned with the party policy, are:

Gun control
Immigration enforcement
Abortion
Israel/Palestine
Loan forgiveness
DEI, potential reparations