The Truth About Undecided Voters (This will make you mourn our democracy)

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=hayes111704

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT UNDECIDED VOTERS.
Decision Makers
by Christopher Hayes

...

Undecided voters aren't as rational as you think.

Members of the political class may disparage undecided voters, but we at least tend to impute to them a basic rationality. We're giving them too much credit. I met voters who told me they were voting for Bush, but who named their most important issue as the environment. One man told me he voted for Bush in 2000 because he thought that with Cheney, an oilman, on the ticket, the administration would finally be able to make us independent from foreign oil. A colleague spoke to a voter who had been a big Howard Dean fan, but had switched to supporting Bush after Dean lost the nomination. After half an hour in the man's house, she still couldn't make sense of his decision. Then there was the woman who called our office a few weeks before the election to tell us that though she had signed up to volunteer for Kerry she had now decided to back Bush. Why? Because the president supported stem cell research. The office became quiet as we all stopped what we were doing to listen to one of our fellow organizers try, nobly, to disabuse her of this notion. Despite having the facts on her side, the organizer didn't have much luck.

<snip>

A disturbing number of undecided voters are crypto-racist isolationists... In fact, there was a disturbing trend among undecided voters--as well as some Kerry supporters--towards an opposition to the Iraq war based largely on the ugliest of rationales. I had one conversation with an undecided, sixtyish, white voter whose wife was voting for Kerry. When I mentioned the "mess in Iraq" he lit up. "We should have gone through Iraq like shit through tinfoil," he said, leaning hard on the railing of his porch. As I tried to make sense of the mental image this evoked, he continued: "I mean we should have dominated the place; that's the only thing these people understand. ... Teaching democracy to Arabs is like teaching the alphabet to rats." I didn't quite know what to do with this comment, so I just thanked him for his time and slipped him some literature. (What were the options? Assure him that a Kerry White House wouldn't waste tax dollars on literacy classes for rodents?)

<snip>

The worse things got in Iraq, the better things got for Bush... undecideds seemed oddly unwilling to hold the president accountable for his previous actions, focusing instead on the practical issue of who would have a better chance of success in the future. Because undecideds seemed uninterested in assessing responsibility for the past, Bush suffered no penalty for having made things so bad; and because undecideds were focused on, but cynical about, the future, the worse things appeared, the less inclined they were to believe that problems could be fixed--thereby nullifying the backbone of Kerry's case. Needless to say, I found this logic maddening.

<snip>

Undecided voters don't think in terms of issues... More often than not, when I asked undecided voters what issues they would pay attention to as they made up their minds I was met with a blank stare, as if I'd just asked them to name their favorite prime number... As far as I could tell, the problem wasn't the word "issue"; it was a fundamental lack of understanding of what constituted the broad category of the "political." The undecideds I spoke to didn't seem to have any intuitive grasp of what kinds of grievances qualify as political grievances. Often, once I would engage undecided voters, they would list concerns, such as the rising cost of health care; but when I would tell them that Kerry had a plan to lower health-care premiums, they would respond in disbelief--not in disbelief that he had a plan, but that the cost of health care was a political issue. It was as if you were telling them that Kerry was promising to extend summer into December.

[loathesomeshrub]

1. This is really what pisses me off the most - is how unreasonable

the people who voted for Bush are. You can knock them on the head with eery fact about the horrendous choices he's made, how much he has screwed up - and still they voted for him. I am utterly bewildered!

[George_S]

5. Says more about Rove's propaganda machine, I think.

If you can't talk to them with logic, dazzle them with confusion.

[matt819]

6. They are not unreasonable.

They are stupid. I know we're not supposed to say that. We're supposed to spend the next four years trying to educate them. It won't work. They are stupid. Repeat after me.

[cybildisobedience]

11. I agree...

Why do we have to dance around the obvious?
Aside from being ill-informed, many of these voters completely lack critical thinking skills -- they are unable to question, to reason, to draw conclusions from independent observations.
True, credit for this sorry state should go to Fox "news" and the 24/7 hate radio that has poisoned our country for the past two decades.
But for God's sake, how smart do you have to be to notice that you don't have a paycheck anymore, or that you're paying double and triple what you used to pay for gas and groceries?

[Strawman]

2. Sad, but nothing new

Most voters know jack squat about the candidates or the issues or the candidates specific positions on the issues. They're lucky to even know the names of who is running for Congress.

[Darth_Kitten]

3. People are stupid.

:(

[ixion]

8. Yes

they are.

:-(

[MuseRider]

4. "Met with a blank stare"

That is all we need to know about them. There is no "there" there many times. SO they voted for Bush**. Going from Dean to Bush**? Now that one really has me puzzled.

[divineorder]

7. I'm not surprised.

When you consider two things: television and the end of consistent civics education. TV, which most people get their info from, is only now being challenged by the internet. Let's face it. TV is interested in sensationalism, not information. Most of the local public officials only get covered at election time and when there's a scandal. Newspapers did better, because of if nothing else, the need to fill space. There, you could at least run into a mention of some bill or law being passed, or an org with an ad. TV considers such information "boring" and problematical Problematical due to the influence of wingnut corporations and individuals who threaten anyone who presents a "less than rosy" view of America. Civics education, I suspect also went through the same process of dumbing down once the 60's professors left.

Then there were other places you could get a political education. Democratic clubs, the lodge, your union. They've all declined lately, and are just now getting a second wind.

So nobody is out there consistenly giving a point of view that "undecided" voters can at least think about at election time.

[MISSDem]

9. Undecided voters are people who do no care

enough to do some research and simply decide who stands for what they believe. No one can be undecided right up to election day. How silly. Most people do not care enough to put any time into studying the issues. I know people who voted or Bush but they are pro choice; I know people who voted for Bush who are appalled about what is going on in Iraq. Go figure. They simply do not know what is going on. It's almost like they don't really realize that they have a choice.

[Avis]

10. military

My daughter was talking to some young military women on base and they voted for Bush because he was Pro Choice!!!

[The Spirit of JFK]

12. The Masses Are Asses

Many of them CAN'T think for themselves...and I think a lot don't WANT to.

The election year is long, nasty, and filled with spin..and sometimes facts. People don't want to pay attention because it is "hard work"...tiring to figure it all out. And there is a very good chance if they DO pay attention, it will make them angry about the state of our political process, politicians, and even our country (look at many of us here in DU). They are just scraping by worrying about their OWN crappy lives...they can't afford having to worry about something else, especially on this level. SO they ignore it, or try to...as the Rovian spin machine works away. When the election is here, they panic, so they grasp at straws and try to pick an issue or two to care about. When panic sets in, people will almost always choose the status quo because it's what they know...it's EASY to figure out. The problem is how to justify it...so they make things, ANYTHING, up....just to prove they had put thought into it. And sadly, it's usually the conservative spin which they heard on TV.

A good part of this has to do with the fact the political discourse among the masses has been almost vilified. You don't talk politics...it's divisive and socially unacceptable. God forbid that people with differing opinions talk about them...that's SO un-American. To the GOP, politics is all about devisiveness...it makes people afraid...afraid to talk with the "enemy"...and THAT'S what keeps the masses in line for them.

[Bragi]

13. So how does the really stupid vote split?

I accept that there are people stupid enough to vote for Bush because they think he's pro-choice, but are there equal numbers of stupid people who would have voted for Kerry on the belief that he was anti-choice?

My guess is that the really, really stupid don't vote, which works for me. But has anyone ever studied the voting preferences of plain stupid people who manage to find their way to the polling station?