Single-issue voters...

[WilliamPitt]

Poll question: Single-issue voters...

[Terwilliger]

1. which "single-issue" would you like?

The war? Abortion? Economic management? Gun control? Human rights? Jobs? Trade?

[Cuban_Liberal]

2. You didn't have a 'self-righteous prig' option.

;)

[WilliamPitt]

3. That would fall under the 'maddening' category

:)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

5. I love it! Perfect description.

Can also substitute 'prude' for 'prig' in most cases!

[Richardo]

4. "...do not really "get" democracy."

Politics is not dogma.

[Terwilliger]

6. You're right

politics is simply spin spin spin...make people believe your bullshit, and you win the prize!

[ulysses]

7. define "single-issue voter"

In my experience, the degree to which a single-issue voter is a pain in the ass is inversely proportional to the degree to which one identifies with the issue in question. We all have our issues.

[AP]

10. I'll define it:

It's when the issue for everyone should be whether economic, political and cultural power is flowing up or down, and people apply their single issue litmus test to support politicians and politics that are directly counter to that central goal.

It's like when Kucinich supporters think Kucinich is betraying them on Iraq War when he supports the only other candidate as vigorously interested in downard redistribution of political, economic and cultural power as he is.

It's like when the HRC endorses AL DAMATO over Chuck Schumer.

It's like when people argue to incorporate gays in the most conservative institutions in America (marriage and the army) when there's a bigger issue about separation of chuch and state, and getting the government out of the business of telling people how to be couples which could help alot of same and opposite sex couples on the margins of society.

[Terwilliger]

11. So then...NOBODY should be voting for the Democratic party

because they're the ones who've been there all along while all these terrible policies have been put in place

[AP]

13. Maybe if single-issue voters didn't work at cross-purposes

with people who are trying to make a difference, the party would be more successful in your eyes?

[ulysses]

16. that seems a little more in depth than Will's question implies

I took it as being a question more of "does a candidate support/oppose insert issue here". As in "are people who vote based on human rights/reproductive rights/gay rights/globalization/peace/etc. stances admirable or an unwarranted pain in the ass". Maybe Will can shed some light.

[Toucano]

17. I think that is

well put. Thanks.

[AP]

8. Pitt, read Lisa Duggan's book Twilight of Equality.

It's all about this.

[Zomby Woof]

9. what is also maddening...

...are political neophytes (and even alleged vets) who know NOTHING about politics and wax sanctimonious that the world doesn't work their way. Tough shit.

[VelmaD]

12. Pick me! Pick me!

I'm a single-issue voter. I'm only voting for the candidate that publicly supports identifyin and removing all the space aliens that have infiltrated out government. Lyndon LaRouche all the way BAYBEE! ;-)

[Clark4Prez]

15. But what about the Art Bell vote?

Won't he lose this valuable group?

[Cannikin]

18. I'll still vote Art Bell!

I support him on HAARP and chemtrails!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. As a former mod in the Gun Dungeon

as well as having dealt with some anti-choice zealots and some folks on both sides of the Israel/Palestine issue and some pro-logging types in Oregon, I have had single-issue voters up to here. (Hand indicating eyebrows.)

[DemBones DemBones]

19. My opinion is that

EVERY SINGLE ISSUE IS AN IMPORTANT ONE!!!

[ulysses]

20. let's be honest, Will.

Voters are only described as "single-issue" when that issue isn't one we're passionate about. More, they're the ones who don't tend to have as much backup as others.

In other words, someone who bases their vote largely on a candidate's position on economic globalization will be labeled a "single-issue voter", whereas someone who bases their vote largely on a candidate's position on reproductive rights will not.

[AP]

23. That's not true. There's tons of scholarship on this and I don't think

much of it defines single issue voters according to the perciever's POV.

It's a fact that there are PLENTY of single issue interest groups.

It's a fact that the left was on the brink of making a difference in the 60s when broad ranges of disparate groups all got together and realized they shared a common interest: downward distribution of economic, political and cultural power.

Since the ealry 70s there's been a schism within the left, and we've seen the growth of single-issue interest groups which work more and more at cross purposes.

When you have people like Andrew Sullivan driving at least one single issue interest group, it's worth asking yourself if this schism isn't something that's driven from the right by people who saw the soft underbelly of the increasingly powerful left movement.

The left will win when we start getting back to the realization that there's a connection between reproductive rights and globalization (and candidates like K and E are the two who seem interested in putting forward the more encompassing definition of progressivism).

[ulysses]

24. I mean the perception

I agree with you more than you know, but Will's question was binary and about individuals.

I'm in total agreement that single-interest groups on the left have to find a way to support each other. We're screwed - triangulated - until we can do that. That doesn't mean that those voters, however "maddening", are to be left aside.

[AP]

25. I agree with that, and that's actually the argument in the Duggan book.

You should read it if you're really interested in this.

[mikehiggins]

21. Zealots cannot compromise.

Therefore they are elitist, undemocratic and, yes, maddening.

Single issue partisans, to one degree or another, are all zealots and all, therefore, maddening.

When I was a teenager my single issue was getting laid.

Now it is regime change in the US.

I hope that means I'm maturing.

[Mz Pip]

22. I try to look at the whole package

but I would be hard pressed to vote for anyone who wanted to overturn Roe v Wade.

I don't think I agree with everything my candidate has said or that I will ever find I candidate who I agree 100% with but the Roe v Wade issue is a support buster for me.

MzPip
:dem: