Single Issue Voters Will Decide November Presidential Election

The Us Versus Them Election

By David Hinz

The Presidential election in November will be decided by "Single-Issue" voters. Single issue voters -- those voters who are passionate about just one issue -- include 'Right to Life" and "Right to Choose" within the abortion debate, and Second Amendment concerns among hunters.

While each of these issues has played a part in past elections, it is a different Single Issue voter that will decide who takes the oath of office for President of the United States next January. That single issue is:

R versus D

That's right, the single most important issue in the November campaign will be whether the candidate has an R or a D after their name. Forget about the issues; the demographics; the race or sex. The next President of the United States will be elected by the party that turns out the most clones.

The American political landscape breaks down into roughly three groupings; The Democrat Base on the left, the Republican Base on the right, and the vacuous Center. The Democrat Base is unabashedly liberal -- unabashedly, except when it comes to labels. They prefer to be called Progressives or Moderates, but they are definitely liberals.

Liberals have fallen in love with the myth of Robin Hood. They seek to take from the rich and give to the poor. They see inequality of outcome, and look to government to rectify the situation. What they fail to remember in their zeal to level the playing field is that the original Robin Hood stole from the (rich) government, which was over-taxing the people, and gave to the people (who earned the money in the first place.) Liberals see the government as the answer. Conservatives see it as the problem.

The Republican Base is unabashedly conservative, and, for the most part, unafraid of being labeled as such. Large-C Conservatives believe in a strong national defense, a smaller, less intrusive federal government, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility in government. At least Conservatives go to Washington with those beliefs, where, after a few years they become almost indistinguishable from Liberals.

And, in the middle, we have the Independents and moderates. They can be distinguished by...well, something. The most obvious characteristic of a moderate is that neither side can count on them when it is absolutely necessary.

Conventional wisdom is that the center is what will elect the President. Conventional wisdom, as usual, is wrong. The Presidential election will hinge on whether more conservatives ignore the name and vote for the R, or more liberals simply vote for the D.

Most years this would be translated as GOTV (Get out the vote), as eager and energetic partisans canvas for voters to go to the polls to put their candidate over the top. This election could be interesting in that respect, as a significant segment of both party's base is disenchanted with their nominee. GOTV might well take on the aspect this November of a scavenger hunt, as each party scours their precincts for Ds and Rs willing to hold their nose and vote the Party ticket.