Independent voters who live in communities with high levels of gun violence are very concerned about gun safety and gun regulationsOur research has shown that this mustn’t be surprising.
What is surprising, nevertheless, is our accompanying finding: The views of Democrats and Republicans living in the identical communities on gun violence and gun laws are more consistent with the views of their party leaders than with their each day life experiences.
The same applies to other vital political issues: the political beliefs of the independents and Perspectives on key issues also reflect economic and social conditions that they see and experience day-after-day.
In contrast, Democrats' and Republicans' ideas about what problems deserve government attention and easy methods to solve them are much less prone to be based on their very own life experiences, but slightly simply reflect the knowledge they’ve received from political leaders on social media, cable television, or other partisan information channels.
Independence is desirable
The United States' two-party system implies that the political party that controls the federal government has more influence on what laws and policies are passed than another factor. Yet Americans are have a powerful aversion to political parties. Political independence is a giant a part of American political DNA.
Political independence is definitely viewed by most Americans as desirable social attributeIn general, many Americans view non-partisanship as a method to show that they’re free thinkers who will not be certain by the restrictive constraints of the American two-party system and who stand above political fray.
However, when asked, most individuals admit that they like one in all the 2 political parties and mostly vote for them. Only a couple of fifth of Americans are so independent that they don’t consistently vote for one party or the opposite.
How political independents determine
We have conducted a series of national surveys of Americans over the past decade and have repeatedly found that only the Independents reply to the knowledge they gain from their life experience.
For example, we found that living independently in a neighborhood with the best gun violence rate within the United States 70 percentage points more likely to say they’re very concerned about gun violence as an independent living within the safest area within the U.S. That is smart.
But for Democrats and Republicans, there isn’t any correlation between where they live and their concerns about gun violence: whether or not they live in a comparatively dangerous or a comparatively secure area, their views on gun violence reflect their party's messages on the problem.
We also found that the private financial situation of self-employed people has a significant impact on their views on policies akin to minimum wage and reasonably priced housing. Self-employed individuals who struggle to afford their basic needs are almost twice as likely They support government investment in reasonably priced housing of their neighborhoods and are twice as prone to support a rise within the minimum wage as independents, who never struggle to fulfill their basic needs.
For Republicans and Democrats, their personal financial situation has no bearing on their political beliefs—only the party they belong to matters. On average, Republicans and Democrats who repeatedly struggle to afford basic necessities have the identical views on reasonably priced housing and the minimum wage as their party colleagues who never experience financial pressure.
Although there may be loads of research that Increasing polarization and nationalization of American politicsOur research shows that some politics remains to be local and private, rooted locally and folks's own life experiences – but only amongst politically independent people.
But that's only about 20% of the nation's electorate, and the number varies considerably by state. Our research shows that while the remaining 80% still walk of their communities, consult with their neighbors, and pay their bills, they’re less prone to use those experiences to tell their political preferences and decisions.
Instead, they pay more attention to the strategic, partisan information streaming from their phones, computers, televisions, and radios, telling them what the partisan elites have decided and what they need to think and prioritize.
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