> On the contrary, according to relatively recent Pew numbers from 2018 [1], around ~38% of American's identify as independents, with ~%31 democrat and ~%26 republican.
That's not “on the contrary”; 38% < 50%; most Americans don't identify as independents.
Heck, even 43% (the number that don't identify as either Republicans or Democrats) is less than 50%; most Americans specifically identify as either Democrats or Republicans.
> but independents are much more important in politics than they are usually given credit for.
On the contrary, independents are given outsize importance by the major media, because they are treated as just as large of a group as they actually are, but are treated as if their voting behavior was much more different from that of self-identified partisans than it actually is.
You got me in a technically correct way, which is as they say, the best kind of correct. I think the keyword "majority" being defined as more than %50 being the crux, so I should have worded my statement better with a "most", "plurality" or "relative majority" instead.
> most Americans specifically identify as either Democrats or Republicans
Now you just did the same thing I did but in reverse! See my comments about more specific words for plurality such as "most".
> independents are given outsize importance by the major media
I don't think independents are given much importance at all by the major media, but I have increasingly disconnected from that circus too so I might not be a good judge of it.
> Now you just did the same thing I did but in reverse!
No, I didn't.
> See my comments about more specific words for plurality such as "most".
“Most” (as an adjective applied to a group) is for a majority, not a plurality, but that's okay, because 57% is an absolute majority, anyway, which is why my reference, which did use “most” for a majority, was not what you did.
Maybe not the best source, but quite a few sites returned similar verbiage about most usually but not always referring to a plurality. I'm open to correction on this point, and am genuinely curious about this meta argument now. Having a hard time finding a statistical dictionary that references the words we are using here (majority, most, etc).
Are you asking rhetorically in a facetious way or a real question? If the former am I missing something (like maybe I said something dumb, it's happened before)?
That's not “on the contrary”; 38% < 50%; most Americans don't identify as independents.
Heck, even 43% (the number that don't identify as either Republicans or Democrats) is less than 50%; most Americans specifically identify as either Democrats or Republicans.
> but independents are much more important in politics than they are usually given credit for.
On the contrary, independents are given outsize importance by the major media, because they are treated as just as large of a group as they actually are, but are treated as if their voting behavior was much more different from that of self-identified partisans than it actually is.