What does this mean? People are not evaluating state legislators based on their performance in office. And they’re not really doing that for members of Congress, either. They’re more or less voting a party slate. That is, they make a determination of whether they like the way things are going nationally, and then vote for or against the president’s party based on that for pretty much every partisan office. And as we know from a great deal of research, people evaluate the president’s party in large part on the performance of the national economy.

aerowid:

I would be more concerned with this if representatives didn't adhere so strictly to party lines. No one's going to vote for a candidate who disagrees with them. When your only choices are one who more or less agrees with you and one who more or less doesn't, how effective of a politician they are really is a secondary issue. What we need is election reform so you aren't forced to choose between two options split by party lines, but until then voting by party is the only reasonable option.

posted 3511 days ago