jgw is correct in my mind. Independents don't necessary vote for winners, they decide winners. Especially nationally. Gallup lists the party strength, those who identify them selves as Republicans and Democrats at 29% each as of 17 Sep 2021 with 41% being independents. Here's the link, party affiliation changes constantly, I keep track of it for use in my forecasts. But its interesting how it goes up and down. All depends on what's happening at the moment.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspxAlso interesting is independents which can be broken down into 3 categories, independents lean Republican, independents lean Democrat and no lean or true independents. For the first time since April 2020, independents lean Republican has taken a slight advantage over independents lean Democratic.
44% of those who profess to be independents as of 17 Sep 2021 lean toward the Republicans, 39% lean toward the Democrats with 17% of independents with no leans, true or pure independents as I call them. Now all this will change come the end of the month when Gallup comes out with another party affiliation poll.
I'm not sure it's the infighting that drove Biden and company's approvals down. Although it can't help. That wasn't happening back in August when those numbers began to tumble. I think the first step on recovery would be for the House to pass the compromised, bipartisan infrastructure bill that the senate has already passed. But there may be economics problems out there beyond Biden's and the Democratic controlled congress ability to do much about. Empty store shelves, a dollar rise a gallon in gas, the cost of food rising etc. Perhaps a lot of this has to do with a lot of people refusing to go back to work.
I think folks are just tired of the pandemic, they want things to go back to normal. That the election of Biden was due to or tied to that hope. There was quite a lot of campaigning against how Trump handled the pandemic, Biden and company said they could do better. But better may not be enough. People in my opinion had way too high expectations in this regard. The end of the pandemic in 6 months. Or so it seemed or was perceived is what Biden and company were offering. Reality is different, but reality, truth etc. really doesn't reverberate in politics. It all boils down to perceptions and expectations. possible or not.
