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An interesting study that heralds the rise of the independent voter in the era of Barack Obama.

The proportion of independents now equals its highest level in 70 years. Owing to defections from the Republican Party, independents are more conservative on several key issues than in the past. While they like and approve of Barack Obama, as a group independents are more skittish than they were two years ago about expanding the social safety net and are reluctant backers of greater government involvement in the private sector. Yet at the same time, they continue to more closely parallel the views of Democrats rather than Republicans on the most divisive core beliefs on social values, religion and national security.

While the Democrats gained a sizable advantage in partisan affiliation during George Bush’s presidency, their numbers slipped between December 2008 and April 2009, from 39% to 33%. Republican losses have been a little more modest, from 26% to 22%, but this represents the lowest level of professed affiliation with the GOP in at least a quarter century. Moreover, on nearly every dimension the Republican Party is at a low ebb – from image, to morale, to demographic vitality.

By contrast, the percentage of self-described political independents has steadily climbed, on a monthly basis, from 30% last December to 39% in April. Taking an average of surveys conducted this year, 36% say they are independents, 35% are Democrats, while 23% are Republicans. On an annual basis, the only previous year when independent identification has been this high was in 1992 when Ross Perot ran a popular independent candidacy.

As has been the case in recent years, more independents “lean” Democratic than Republican (17% vs. 12%). Yet an increasing share of independents describe their views as conservative; in surveys conducted this year, 33% of independents say they are conservatives, up from 28% in 2007 and 26% in 2005. Again, this ideological change is at least in part a consequence of former Republicans moving into the ranks of independents.
The latest values survey, conducted March 31-April 21 among 3,013 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, finds that there has been no consistent movement away from conservatism, nor a shift toward liberalism – despite the decline in Republican identification. In fact, fewer Americans say the government has a fundamental responsibility to provide a safety net than did so two years ago, and the share supporting increased help for the needy, even if the debt increases, has declined.

How does this trend affect the future of the two party system? Will independent voters gradually assimilate back into the two majoer parties or will there arise a new third party?

Will independent candidates first start at the state level and contest districts that normally are dominated by either the Democrats or GOP?

Stay tuned……..

The Question:

Do you approve or disapprove of how each of the following has handled the matter of interrogation techniques used against terrorism suspects?

Approve/Disapprove:

• Barack Obama – 59/29%
• The CIA – 52/31%
• Democrats in Congress – 44/40%
• Republicans in Congress – 40/45%
• Nancy Pelosi – 31/47%

Well, Pelosi is a Liar Liar Pants on fire and Americans know it.

Say what you will about RNC Chairman Michael Steele but he is raising the campaign cash for the Republican Party.

Moe Lane has run the numbers and finds that yet again, the RNC under Michael Steele has outraised the DNC under Tim Kaine, $5.76 million to $4.52 million; the RNC’s cash on hand margin is $24.38 million to $9.09 million; and the DNC owes $5.42 million in debt while the RNC has none.

I first heard the “blaming of California voters” mantra in an light-hearted argument in a social ocassion with a left-wing acquaintenance who is active in the California homosexual/Proposition 8 community a few weeks ago. Assuming this banter was about traditonal marriage and the reluctance of California voters to approve the gay one, I originally disregarded the argument.

But, no it went further.

California voters were to blame for the budget insolvency, the bonded indebtedness, Proposition 13, California school mandated spending – like everything. I argued that California’s initiative, referendum and recall system was the ultimate in democracy and the voters reap what they sow or don’t sow at the ballot box.

Continuing on, the Left One maintained that it is all of the voter’s FAULT and they should NOT be trusted to govern the state.

Whoa, I thought and disengaged to talk with others and Twitter.

Then, comes the May 19, 2009 California Special Election.  All of the budget measures supported by the Democrat dominated California Legislature and RINO GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenenegger failed to pass by huge margins (see graphic above). The ONLY measure that passed was to limit Pols salaries.

The next day and not surprisingly the BLAME CALIFORNIA VOTERS mantra appears in the left-leaning California MSM.

First, there is an op-ed piece by Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times, California Voters Exercise Their Power — And That’s The Problem.

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state’s fiscal debacle.

By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

Rightly or wrongly, voters in the special election refused either to extend new tax hikes or to cap state spending. They also declined to unlock funds that they had voted in better financial times to set aside for special purposes.

Nearly a century after the Progressive-era birth of the state’s ballot-measure system, it is clear that voters’ fickle commands, one proposition at a time, are a top contributor to paralysis in Sacramento. And that, in turn, has helped cripple the capacity of the governor and Legislature to provide effective leadership to a state of more than 38 million people.

Huh?

California voters are exerting their check on a rogue California Legislature and Governor beholden to Labor Unions and other special interests who provide them campaign cash. After all, don’t these POLS work for the people of California?

But, it is the California voters’s fault they did not approve the “ELITISTS” view that the disastrously insolvent tax and spend California budget problems should be rectified by MORE tax and spend? Maybe the voters have finally wised up and have had enough as unemployment soars and budget deficits skyrocket?

Just maybe?

Yet, the Los Angeles Times is NOT the only MSM outlet who blames California voters. The Sacramento Bee chimes in, then retracts, well sort of.

Michelle has the summary POOP on the story while this northern California blogger breaks the story.

Case in point: The Sacramento Bee’s sneering editorial flipping the bird to Californians who overwhelmingly rejected the tax-and-spend ballot measures (title: “You did it! Uh, so now what?”). After getting called out not only by hometown readers, but also nationally by Rush Limbaugh, the Bee yanked the editorial and replaced it with a kinder, gentler piece that did a complete 180 — from denigrating voters to counseling politicians that “You can blame the voters for reacting with uninformed and misplaced anger. Or you can look in the mirror and admit you had it coming. And you know you did.”

Blaming the voters? Reacting with misplaced anger? I smell projection. Guess the Sacto Bee editorial board had a look in the mirror.

The newspaper says it neeeever intended to publish the original editorial. Andrea Shea King and Dave Logan have the scoop. An editor told Logan the original rantings were just random notes. Just “thoughts.”

Yes, just “thoughts.” Thanks to copy-and-paste and caching, California voters will always know what the Sacramento Bee really thought of the election results and how they really think of the peons who buy their newspaper. Or used to buy it.

See the unifying theme: Blame the California voters – they either don’t know what they are doing or won’t do what is good for them, blah blah blah.

The self-aggrandizing elitism is so thick I almost want to gag.

But, thanks to the “Progressive Era” in California, the initiative, referendum and recall remains law. And, if the POLS in the Legislature or the Governor’s Office or even the Supreme Court don’t fulfill the PEOPLE”S interests, we voters will either change the laws or throw their ASSES out of office.