Are independents smarter than the average person?

Independents are embarrassed Republicans and Bill Maher.

@johnpowell Actually… most of the Independents I know used to be Democrats, believe it or not. I mean, my aunt claimed to be a “flaming liberal” and was a Democrat all her life. Now, she’s an Independent.

How about you try a different position than “people who are different than me are stupid”? Oh, I’m sorry, simply “rarely have the capacity to stand their ground” and “uninformed and polarized to the point of uselessness”. I could spin tales of independents simply being unable to make up their minds and ignoring facts to allow them to simply go with the flow in the middle and not make waves. Hell, if we really wanted to throw stones I could throw out actual studies that show that ”There [is] strong support for political extremists both on the left and right being higher in verbal ability than centrists” (but I don’t, because the actual research is more complicated). So why don’t you give a shot a coming down from that high horse you got there for a change? Though I will admit, that profile pic sure suits you.

I don’t really buy that. Everyone that I know that votes straight ticket Republican claims to be a Independent.

Really, the brand is toxic.

I’m a proud Democrat.

@BhacSsylan Maybe I should have said ignorant instead of stupid? Anyway, I apologize if my tone came across a little strong. It’s how I feel and I’m just being honest. Your reply tells me you’re stubborn. Probably not satisfied but not quite ready to admit it. Look, it doesn’t matter to which band of empty suits you’re clinging to, you will be betrayed if you haven’t already been. Just think about it.

No. Tons of people choose democrat or republican because in their state they can only vote their party in the primaries, so they don’t declare themselves to be independents. Both my parents have always thought like independents, especially my mother, but she is a registered Democrat. My dad defected from the Republicans about 6 years ago and he would rather identify as an independent, but went Democrat because of the primary rules where he lives. He actually votes staright ticket Democrat now, he thinks the Republicans are so nutso now, having been a Republican himself for 40 years. When he was a Republican during those 40 years he did at times vote Democrat. My mom, the forever Democrat still votes for Republicans at times.

@johnpowell It’s your right as an American to be a proud republocrat if you wish. Are you proud to be an American? Have you trampled over patriotism for the sake of a band of empty suits? I digress, it’s your choice. Not that it’s your business but I voted for people I thought were best for my community. I voted for a Dem, A Rep, a Lib and a few other Inds that I thought were a good match.

I’m an independent. I just don’t like people talking down to others when they don’t actually know them or their circumstances, or acting like they have everything figured out far better than anyone else. I noticed you ignored the actual science on the issue. Using the term ‘ignorant’ doesn’t make it any better. It’s not like you haven’t made your feelings on the matter clear before, though, so I’m not sure exactly why I bother.

@JLeslie You bring up a good point. Some of the states have unfortunate laws in that regard. Hopefully that will change soon and people can choose the best and not the lesser of 2 evils…

None of the above.
Liberal apoliticals are the smartest by far. lol

@BhacSsylan I didn’t ignore it, I bypassed it because I know you’re right and it didn’t help my argument. Hey, at least I’m an honest jerk. LOL

@Coloma I understand how this sort of issue can drain a person. I wouldn’t say that not being interested is the best approach however. Problems won’t go away if you ignore them.

@DWW25921 :: Seriously, when you say shit like this:

It’s your right as an American to be a proud republocrat if you wish. Are you proud to be an American? Have you trampled over patriotism for the sake of a band of empty suits?

do you expect me to take you seriously?

Even if an average independent were smarter than an average Democrat or Republican, it would not be useful information.

Let say that you had three people, X(democrat) Y(independent) Z(republican). Which one is smartest?

If intelligence had no bearing on politics, the answer would be
X=33.33%, Y=33.33%, Z=33.33%
With each person being equally likely to be smartest.

If independents, on average, were smarter, then the distribution may look like this:
X=33%, Y=34%, Z=33%

The independent has the highest likelihood of being the smartest, but simply saying “the independent is smartest” would be incorrect 66% of the time.

@johnpowell If you don’t take that question seriously than you’re part of the problem. Honestly, being an American is always more important than my party affiliation. You have priorities to consider, I think.

@PhiNotPi Part of the beauty of Q&A sites is the ability to hash out opinions in an open forum. I did not look anything up, I don’t have references. Ergo, this question is an opinion based upon my life experiences. Your formula is interesting and I see your point and it even makes sense. I appreciate the feedback. However, I also have to take in to account my personal experiences which added up comes to a different result. Can you dig it?

@DWW25921 I didn’t really use any formula, it was just an example to show that “statistically significant” does not mean “important/substantial.”

I think taking care of people that need help is more important than wearing a flag shaped pin on your lapel.

And…
Seriously, Fuck America. I am not proud. If my mother loved me she would have shot me out of her vagina in Norway.

@PhiNotPi Maybe it’s not a formula… Whatever you want to call it is good enough for me! It was interesting… I’ll give you that.

@johnpowell I can’t honestly blame you for that as I was disillusioned by all the petty crap for years. There comes a point when a person decides whether to do what they think is right or give up entirely. I’ve thought about giving up many times. The odds of an Independent winning aren’t that great… I just can’t give up on it. At least you’re being honest.

I think we could all be smarter by ignoring government altogether.

Our nation should be run like Wikipedia.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies You may be on to something there! I mean, we have the technology right? If we voted for everything we wouldn’t need representatives!

Recently heard about some art show foiled by the G shutdown. The funded museum/gallery had to evict the artists and their artwork onto the street the night of their opening. They claimed the shutdown. But the artists held the show anyway on the street.

I think it was more of a publicity stunt to blame the other side… whichever side.

But check this out… The way I see it… THAT MUSEUM BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE. They had no right to evict and lock up. If the government cannot run it, then turn the keys over to the locals. They’ll take very good care of it and probably run it better without any funded oversight. It’s OUR building… nobody should be able to lock us out.

Step aside G… you obviously cannot handle it. We’ll take care of it. We’ll do the maintenance, pay the utilities, run the shows… we got this so back off and fuck off. People should storm the gates and demand access to their property. It doesn’t belong to the government. It’s ours.

I used to claim to be an independent, and then I remembered that I’m bad at math, and reevaluated.

Say there are three candidates: Chaotic-evil, Neutral-evil, and Chaotic neutral.

Now, I really like chaotic neutral for the ticket, add their independent leanings match well with my philosophies. Neutral evil isn’t as distasteful in my eyes as chaotic evil. I don’t like him, but he’d be better than the alternative.

If chaotic evil gets 48% of the vote, and the bad-at-math idealist independents vote for chaotic neutral for 10%, we are eating baby brains for the next four years, because we split the vote that would have kept Sauron out of office.

It’s not who you vote for, it’s who you vote against.

That is a generalization. It is not true.

A lot of us don’t want to waste our vote on Independants. The numbers aren’t there. I like something about each party.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I feel ya there! It’s a shame what’s happening to the vets too… I mean, the WWII Memorial is an outdoor memorial made of granite… What could possibly go wrong to have those folks visit their own memorial? It sickens me how BOTH sides go out of their way to spite each other.

@Seek_Kolinahr I wish I was optimistic enough to argue the point… You’re right though. We don’t vote for the best we vote against the worst. It’s sad.

@marinelife Is so.

@KNOWITALL Are you not wasting it on an empty suit than? Why not waste it with a clean conscious?

They are smarter than the average bear.

Maybe more stuck up. ”Oh, look at me! I can think for myself so I am not loyal to either party hurr durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

@ragingloli “I can think for myself so I am not loyal to either party” Pretty much…

I don’ t know if I would use the term smarter, maybe more informed would be better.

Or maybe just more wishy-washy?

They are not necessarily smarter. They are just less willing to follow a crowd that all thinks one way. They may prefer a buffet line to a set menu.

@Sunny2 Mmmm Buffet line… There’s this great Chinese place in town and now I kinda want some…

@DWW I can support SSM & still want a real budget, it’s always a compromise but all indeps are not created equal.

@DWW25921 Direct democracy is possible with today’s technology. The only reason a representative system like we have exists is because the nation is too large to count the votes of all using the technology that existed… well, pretty much until a small number of years ago.

@Seek_Kolinahr You don’t have to be bad at math to be an Independent or vote third party. You do have to be bad at free will to automatically dismiss third-party candidates because they are not backed by the big parties. You also have to be pretty myopic as well. Even on a loss, third-party candidates can send a message. Yes, that message can backfire and split the vote, but it usually shakes things up and makes the parties reconsider their next move.
It’s also worth noting that those nations that use a multi-party system (i.e. : pretty much any other nation that holds elections) tend to function far more smoothly than our two-party-only system.

@janbb Yeah, you have to be pretty wishy-washy to take a stand on an issue rather than just go, “What does my party think?”.

@jerv That was beautiful.

I’d love to see a direct voting system. I’d love to see public financing of elections and all special interest money out of the system. But till I see that, @Seek_Kolinahr‘s argument wins most of the time and @jerv‘s send a message idealism seems as likely to change the political climate as sending a message in a bottle, hoping the winds and tides eventually wash it to the right hands.

We can say with some authority that liberals are smarter than conservatives. We have actual research to prove that, but of course, conservatives largely dismiss science as the pursuit of elitists. I don’t think there is any real research covering the IQ of independents. It would be interesting to have some data. I’d guess that if it’s true Independents are mostly people who recognize the Republican brand is toxic but still vote straight R at every election, then your premise is not sustainable and a study would prove it. To make such a bold proclamation in the absence of data is not a sign of great intellect.

Of course, if you want to believe NewWorldOrderWar.com as an authoritative source, then ’‘Democrat sic Voters have lower IQ sic than Independents and Republicans’’ then you could quote their screed as a real study.

@ETpro True Idealism would be expecting it to actually happen here. Obama was not my first choice, but I am realistic enough to know that voting for him was the only way to keep Palin out of the VP seat. The two-party system is pretty firmly entrenched, and I don’t see any way (short of a full-on revolution/coup) to change that.

No, independents are not smarter or better informed. They are gullible, dopey victims of media and special interest political yield management. Republikans pretty much always tow the party line, Democrats are plain ideologically incoherent. So-called independents are ideologically aligned with the Republikans, but don’t want to admit it because it flies in the face of a delusional internal narrative about what tough, clever self-starters they are. The very word “independent” plays to that narrative. Segmenting them from the Republikan herd makes it easy to tailor messages just for them without changing the Republikan brand – pretty much the reason for the Tea Party’s existence.

In the American political context, “independent” is a weasel word. Anybody who shows actual signs of critical thinking skills or antiauthoritarianism, the marks of true independent thinking, is demonized as a pinko, egghead, librul, socialist, or elitist – sometimes all of the above.

I think, in general, the majority of people I meet know absolutely shit about politics. It doesn’t matter what party they are affiliated with—Republican, Democrat, Green, Socialist OR if they are a registered Independent—they have a very whack view on how our government operates.

I am a registered Independent, but I don’t think that would tell you anything about either my political views or my intelligence. I have also very, very rarely voted for a third-party candidate not only because of the numbers game that other users have already detailed, but because many of the candidates running for local and state-wide positions who belong to a third-party aren’t any better or worse than the two major party candidates.

Honestly, the reason why I registered as an independent was because I did not want to “belong” to a party or feel any allegiance to anything. That doesn’t change the fact that I almost always vote Democratic anyway, but whatever.

I should also note that I live in California and have the wonderful fortune of being able to vote during primary elections as an Independent so that I can pick which Democrat I hope will make it into the next leg of the race.

I am a registered Democrat in Massachusetts, a state dominated by Democrats. I am so registered because I think the Democratic Party is the lesser of two available evils and runs my state, and I therefore want to have as loud a voice as I can in shaping their behavior. I do not vote based on party, though. In fact, back when Eisenhower Republicans controlled the party, I was a registered Republican. And no matter my registration, when it comes time to vote, I vote for the candidate that has the best platform and a chance of actually winning.