Ok, here's what I think is interesting about the attempt by the Dems to co-opt the independent movement: they don't know what they're talking about--concretely. Basically the Dems have no positive relationship to the "Swing and Sway" motion of independents. And they really don't care about issues -- only votes. Which brings into question whether they have the talent and the wherewithall to do it. Case in point:
...The other group that has come to make up the Democratic majority is political independents. These voters, who identify themselves to pollsters and public opinion surveys as "independents," represent an ideology rather than a social group, but they overlap with some Democratic constituencies and also set limits on the politics of a Democratic majority. According to the American National Election Studies, they make up about 38 percent of the potential electorate and 33 percent of actual voters. States with the highest proportions of independents are concentrated in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and far West (including Alaska and Hawaii), plus several mountain states (Colorado, Idaho, Montana) and North Dakota. Interestingly, there is considerable overlap between these states and states where Ross Perot polled more than 20 percent in 1992.... (American Prospect, "Back to the Future: The re-emergence of the emerging Democratic majority", by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira, June 18, 2007)
And from Time Magazine's latest "Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger: The New Action Heroes" They're also doing big things. Specifically, they're doing big things that Washington has failed to do."
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