Voters Are Chameleons
The size of protest marches and internet followers does not translate into votes. We saw that during the U.S. Midterms. The forecast was a red wave, which never materialized but Republicans captured the House.
Politicians have handlers who advise them on how to dress, smile, what to post online and answer media questions. That advice might be off base because women give birth to twins, but twin votes are not guaranteed.
No political party can take voters for granted anymore. It used to easy. In Canada, immigrants generally voted for Party A with the slight variation of immigrants from a particular country, voting for Party B. Because twin votes are on the wane, politicians cannot assume that people who vote for efforts to halt climate change, automatically want higher taxes for the rich.
Another example. Professional single women between 32-40 who voted Republican in the last two presidential elections might flip to Democrat in 2024 because the U.S. Supreme Court buried Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion decision. In Canada, the same age group that voted Liberal might vote Conservative in provincial elections because they don’t support schools teaching kids that there is nothing like boys and girls, and boys can be castrated to make them girls.
There are no twin votes. People choose now. If there are two issues joined at the hip, voters think long and hard and choose what they regard as a priority. For example, it doesn’t mean that all staunch Republican voters support voter suppression in Georgia and other southern states. That is how states flip blue or red. We don’t know which issue voters choose from the twin-pack.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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