In their 2002 book, Partisan Hearts and Minds, the political scientists Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler argue that party loyalty is a tribe-like social identification. Despite parties’ shifting stances on issues, and despite changes in personal beliefs over time, voters tend to continue to affiliate with the same political party.
Are people really that stupid and unprincipled? Is identity, which is nothing but a vague, unsubstantiated sense of belonging to a poorly defined group of people the absolute majority of whom you will never meet, really more important than ideas, beliefs, principles? Do people really prefer to serve a party rather than make parties serve them? Is self-interest really so easily defeated by stupid, brainless, unthinking allegiance to somebody else’s interests?
These are rhetorical questions. I know the answers, unfortunately.
N. and I have decided that when (in his case) and if (in my case) we acquire the US citizenship, we will both register as independent voters. It makes zero sense to both of us to promise that we will support any given party irrespective of the road it chooses to take in the future and the actual platform each candidate runs on.
Clarissa's Blog 
I’m not sure how it is in your state but in many states (including mine), voters who register Independant can’t vote in the primaries. So I registered Democrat–not because I’m blinded by the Demoncratic idealisn–but because I want to be able to vote in every stage of the process (and unless something radically changes, I can’t realistically picture myself ever voting for Republicans–especially not where I live.)
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Of course, you can’t vote in the primaries if you don’t belong to the party. I can’t, however, imagine wanting to belong to any party ever. Unless I’m its founder. 🙂 🙂
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I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s not really about wanting to be “belong” to a party or a political group. For me (and for many that I know) it’s important to be able to vote in the primary because that decides the presedential “front runners.”. And since Republicans have never yet produced any candidates that I find remotely palatable, I choose to register Democrat so that I can try to vote for a candidate that I can reasonably support in the general election.
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Look what the quote says, though: “Despite parties’ shifting stances on issues, and despite changes in personal beliefs over time, voters tend to continue to affiliate with the same political party.” It’s not like this registration to vote is like swearing in blood, right? The article says that people keep voting for whomever they voted the very first time, when they were 18. That is not normally an age when one can have a serious political stance of one own. This means that people just fall into a rut (that probably their parents indicate to them) and then just repeat it without even knowing what the candidates represent.
I don’t mean people like you. I mean people who say they vote on the basis of which candidate they prefer to have a beer with. The working poor who vote for the Republicans to dispossess them and to make them poorer.
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That’s exactly it. I think voting in the primaries is probably more important that voting in the presidential election itself.
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The presidential election is not the only one and not even the most important one. There are tons of local and regional elections constantly going on.
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True, and the individual voter does have more sway in smaller elections. I still think voting in the primary is worth it.
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Worth what, though? All we are discussing is who people vote for. They can register as whatever they want, but what’s to prevent them from studying the candidates in the smaller elections and voting based on actual information? There is no law against that.
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Also, people could unregister and re-register before every election, couldn’t they?
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“Worth what, though?”
-Worth registering with a party, I mean.
“They can register as whatever they want, but what’s to prevent them from studying the candidates in the smaller elections and voting based on actual information? There is no law against that.”
-Nothing should prevent them from doing that. Whether they will do it is another question.
“Also, people could unregister and re-register before every election, couldn’t they?”
-I’m sure some people do. I registered as an independent the first time I voted, but re-registered as a democrat when I changed addresses to make sure I would be able to vote in the primary.
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That’s weird. You have to declare your voting intentions when you register to vote? Can you then change your mind on the day?
How easy is it for someone to apply to become a candidate in the presidential elections? I’ve been reading a bit about the process in France (not that I have any political ambitions!) and it seems that the political elite have created what amounts to a closed shop.
You have to belong to a party before you can be considered a candidate. Independent candidates just meet with a wall of administrative blocks so they cannot even start the process. It’s exceptionally undemocratic.
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You register for a party because only people registered for a specific party can vote in the primaries, in which the final candidates are chosen. In the actual election, you can vote for whomever you want.
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The one time I ever volunteered to work with a political party, I was entirely put-off by the behaviour of its workers. They reminded me of cultists more than anything else. Every single thing that they said on any subject always managed to somehow loop back to the glorious party platform and the manifest inferiority of its opponents.
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I have the exact same experience! People were like clones who always had the “correct” opinion on absolutely everything. They worshipped the party with religious devotion. I said that I never found Bill Clinton to be particularly charming, and people looked at me like I had just peed on an image of Jesus.
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