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In America, voters can be found in three basic groups. Two of these
groups are partisans and independents.
1. Partisan voters only support members of their political party
regardless of how bad that candidate may be. There is a term in
the South called "Yellow Dog" voter. Legend has it that this partisan
would vote for a yellow dog on their ticket over a human being running
on the other ticket.
2. The partisan's alter ego is the independent voter - a/k/a mugwump
- whose song sounds like this, "I vote for the man - or woman -
not the party." Unlike their 19th century forebears, modern-day
mugwumps aren't jumping from one party to another; they flit around
in the middle ready to go either way. Consequently, since partisans
are mostly predictable, many races are won or lost by a campaign's
ability to secure the vote of the mercurial mugwump.
3. The third group is the single-issue voter. These voters are
so devoted to and dogmatic about one issue that they refuse to consider
a candidate who disagrees with them on that issue, regardless of
his or her record on a broader range of important issues. Two issues
that perennially evoke such single-minded passion are the environment
and, of course, abortion.
Since single-issue passions - for or against - are usually fueled
by one or the other of the political parties, like partisans, single-issue
voters are also considered predictable voters.
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