How the Least Politically Informed Can Have a Huge Impact

Are we appealing to the least informed among us? It appears so. In a close election, like the one in 2016, a 2.5% can have a huge impact. This country has a 2-party system, like it or not, when only the two major parties have a chance of winning. You may not want to vote strategically, I get it. But, I can't do that. If I vote for one candidate or party that has no chance of winning, I'm in effect helping the other. Often this is totally unacceptable, because of start differences between the two viable options.

In a system of winner-take-all, when you vote for a third party you have to be aware that your candidate/party will get nothing if they have low public support... 

I think it's a disservice to our polity for anyone to argue, vote me for because all the others are the same! Even if you're a dumb Republican, you knew there were meaningful differences among the contenders in the party's primaries. 
Similarly, do the Jill Stein (Green Party) voters really believed that HRC's environmental policies would've been the same as what we've seen from DJT?..

I personally don't find any front runner to be progressive enough. But, I couldn't possibly not have voted for HRC on the grounds she and Donnie were the same! I never liked the Clintons, but had she been elected, responsible and competent people would be in charge--you know, persons who accept science. Most probably she'd be raising her own taxes to pay for something, and the Supreme Court would have had 2 liberal judges instead of 2 cons. Yeah, that supreme court that gave us civil rights, same sex marriage, and protected Roe, etc. Most reasonable people expected exactly what we're getting in terms of policy, government officials, leadership , economics, etc, from the buffoon in the White House. It was so obvious before the election.
 
Appropriately here's lots of discussion about "wasted votes", but attention should be given to the least informed voters---the self described "independents" 


First, there are very few truly independents, because most consistently would vote only for one party. There some other "independents" who know almost nothing about politics and can't tell the difference in policies between the Ds and Rs. But, these people are also too apathetic to vote. So, the truly independents are about 7%, that vote either D or R. But of those only 1/3 voted in 2018! That's 2.3%. In a presidential year election, usually the numbers go up as more voters participate, but still...

In my opinion, and not only, what wins close elections is turnout. So, doing a better job getting you're base out to vote is better than anything else. Obviously, it doesn't have to be 'either or'. But, had the Dems had a slightly greater turnout in those three states in 2016, the outcome would have been the opposite.

Here's the Pew Research findings:Six Facts About Political Independents


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Another instance of the man-child in the White House. The Wall Street Journal broke the story that the White House wanted our navy ship USS John McCain out of sight during Drumpf's visit to Japan! CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 has the story, here. I haven't checked lately, but I'd imagine hundreds of Republicans in Congress are speaking out and condemning Trump... right?...