Does the campaign season even matter anymore?

[IDemo]

There is so much enmity between Left and Right that it seems little of what is said by candidates or what lies in their past has any actual bearing on the voting public anymore. I read this morning that there is little change in the numbers for Rmoney and Obama. This, despite Rmoney stubbornly refusing to release his tax returns, the horrific Bain history, and choosing Ayn Ryan for his running mate. Oh, and dog whistling loudly while clapping his hands over his head and winking. And countless gaffes, whether purposeful or not. And not having a position on anything clearer than a gray on gray Etch-A-Sketch image.

There was a study released that indicated there aren't really that many swing voters - people tend to stick to the same party in the voting booth regardless of how much they might identify as Independents; see - "Closet Partisans".

I'm not trying to say that nobody exists who takes a long look at platforms and positions before casting a vote, but they seem to be in the minority. What we have here is a failure to ruminate. And partisanship approaching (or already at) Hatfield vs McCoy levels.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. The reason why people tend to be partisans, even when claiming to be independents

is that they carry a political ideology and set of beliefs that do not change when they become independent or, in California's case, Decline to State. I'm sill a registered Democrat, but even if I go "Delcine to State" out of general disgust at the direction the party has taken, I am still a liberal with liberal view. Republicans are incredibly unlikely, especially these days, to run someone who would advocate policies that my liberal ideology will find acceptable.

Even if a real Republican Maverick were elected to an office, anything that person tried to pass would go nowhere in a Republican Caucus.

Voting green or for some other more liberal third party is utterly pointless. They don't get elected, and if one did, he or she would have to caucus with either the Democrats or the Republicans. What went for that mythical Republican Maverick would go for a Green or other more liberal party.

We have only two parties that can possibly win any of the vast majority of contests. Those parties are crafted from and choose candidates from a mold. My own knowledge of history, and the habit of following politics closely makes that long look at a platform unnecessary.

It is possible to change the mold, as the Tea Party did with Republicans, running a well funded insurgency that propelled the party even farther right. I was hoping that Occupy would follow a similar path, but perhaps because they did not have someone like the Koch brothers to fund them, or because they chose not to become embroiled in the system, the promise never came to fruition.

I vote Democrat and try to convince others to vote Democrat because within our system a vote for the other side in unconscionable.