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Comment by preseinger | Hacker News Reader

    I'm a moderate
    
    Democrat ... authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas
    
    both sides suck

This is a great expression of what is commonly described as a South Park republican. That is, someone who believes they live in a political space between republicans and democrats which does not actually exist. The fundamental emotion is cynicism, which manifests as active hostility towards any notion of empathy for any other dimension of society, and ultimately distills down to status-quo-ism.

Of course cynicism is non-falsifiable, and there is no coherent notion of a moderate or independent in American politics, because there exists no coherent political position between democratic and republican policy. Anyone claiming to exist in this middle space is in practice a republican, just without the conviction that's typical to that party's base.

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> Anyone claiming to exist in this middle space is in practice a republican, just without the conviction that's typical to that party's base.

So it's basically, "If you're not with us, you're against us?"

Maybe you missed this part in the parent message: "I would have identified as a Democrat on pretty much every issue, but this authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas has just pushed me away from that side completely."

It's so absurd as a statement, no one does a 180 "because free speech".

Both parties are so clearly distinct that if you claim to be something in the middle you'd better explain what you mean. But I'm not an american, I could be wrong, I just watch the show from the outside and sometimes it's sad.

   > But I'm not an american, I could be wrong

Yes, this is the case here. There are a number of issues that matter enough to make people switch parties, particularly the more moderate people in each party. In fact you can see entire swathes of voter blocks having changed parties over the last 20 years as party platforms have changed focus on some core issues.

They won't necessarily switch from D -> R or R -> D. They will often switch to a 3rd party or Independent. Over time they may eventually find their way into supporting the opposite major party. Occasionally they will switch directly from one major party to the other. Just depends on the issues and where people are at in their lives.

Does that make it good?

Single issue voters, like those who only vote for/against abortion, are literally throwing aside every other issue. It’s a disservice to themselves and a disservice to others who have to live with their decision.

Switching to a third party which agrees on a subset of topics with the original party they come from is completely understandable. But again, doing a complete 180, especially knowing what parties stands for in the US is hard to believe. It should takes years, and I mean more than a decade.

It depends on what matters to people. In the US, there have been a number of significant platform shifts in the major parties over the last 10 years. Think of Trump vs mainstream Republicans, or the shift in the Democratic party from support of racial equality to support of racial equity. These are foundational changes that can completely alienate large blocks of voters.

In fact, I would argue those least likely to switch parties are the single issue voters (esp. gun control or abortion) since the parties have not shifted on those issues. Whereas blue collar whites have been abandoning the Democratic party in droves lately despite that being their home for a century. It started after Clinton signed NAFTA, but has really excelled over the last 5-10 years.

Also, a lot of people vote a split ticket where they support people form different parties depending on local/state/federal or even if they just don't like a candidate in their preferred party (see the difference in votes for Walker and Kemp in Georgia for instance).

Single issue voters are incoherent politically and not relevant to any reasonable discussion.

No, it is not the case. There is no coherent political position which exists between the American democratic and republican parties. Anyone who believes they exist in such a middle space is lying to themselves.

Perfectly explained, there is no such thing as moderates, considering what the factions stand for in the US.

Your comment is wrong.

No it isn't. Checkmate! Boom!

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