In case you haven’t noticed, politicians are spineless bastards and we like ‘em that way!
Lately there’s been some consternation amongst our Republican brethren about their presidential candidates. Seems some of them — Romney, Giuliani, McCain – are ”flip-flopping” on issues like abortion, gay rights, immigration, etc. One member of the VRWC even asks if flip-flopping can be forgiven?
Not only can flip-flopping be forgiven, it might be in a candidate’s best interests to do so. A study by the American Psychological Association found that “agreement on the issues — not consistency — is more important to voters when deciding who to vote for.”
A politician who changes position on an issue — either because of a genuine change of heart or in a cynical attempt to attract votes — runs the risk of being branded a “flip-flopper” by opponents and political pundits. But according to the study, even though voters might have some admiration for a consistent candidate, they are more likely to vote for the one they agree with.
Maybe it’s the voters who are spineless?
1 response so far ↓
Brad // June 27, 2007 at 1:55 pm
what’s so funny is that this “flip-flop” nonsense (most rational people call it “changing your mind based on changing evidence,” or a sign of intellectual development) has been used so effectively in the last two presidential campaigns because they were running a complete cipher who had absolutely no fixed positions, except for killing the retarded and making fun of execution victims. And now it’s coming back gloriously to bite them on the ass. I love it.
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