“Independent” doesn’t mean that much. It’s a self applied label that is detached from now they actually vote. There’s plenty of people who consistently vote for only one party and call themselves independents, but for the purpose of discussions like this, they aren’t. When people talk about republicans in contexts like this, they don’t mean registered republicans or “self labeled republicans”. They mean people who support and especially people who vote for republicans.
Being less than 1/3 of the population is also kinda misleading when only 2/3 of the population even care enough to vote. Sure, it’s technically 1/3, but for all intents and purposes, it’s half. The 1/3 who don’t vote don’t matter. It doesn’t help people who are fighting for their rights that “technically, only 1/3 of the country support a lunatic”. By not voting, that 1/3 politically doesn’t exist. So it’s effectively half the country supporting Trump.
(There’s something to be said about how a good chunk of non voters are effectively supporting Trump by not voting even when things are this extreme, too. But it’s really hard to make assumptions about why people don’t vote, so I don’t think it’s worth focusing on except for the purpose of getting people to vote.)
“Independent” doesn’t mean that much. It’s a self applied label that is detached from now they actually vote. There’s plenty of people who consistently vote for only one party and call themselves independents, but for the purpose of discussions like this, they aren’t. When people talk about republicans in contexts like this, they don’t mean registered republicans or “self labeled republicans”. They mean people who support and especially people who vote for republicans.
Being less than 1/3 of the population is also kinda misleading when only 2/3 of the population even care enough to vote. Sure, it’s technically 1/3, but for all intents and purposes, it’s half. The 1/3 who don’t vote don’t matter. It doesn’t help people who are fighting for their rights that “technically, only 1/3 of the country support a lunatic”. By not voting, that 1/3 politically doesn’t exist. So it’s effectively half the country supporting Trump.
(There’s something to be said about how a good chunk of non voters are effectively supporting Trump by not voting even when things are this extreme, too. But it’s really hard to make assumptions about why people don’t vote, so I don’t think it’s worth focusing on except for the purpose of getting people to vote.)
The non-voters still matter because they can still choose to vote. They’re important and mobilizing them can make a difference.