describe lbj-nixon-mcgovern-carter x2-mondale-bush x2-clinton-gore-bush-obama-romney-clinton-trump

[Kleine Scheiße]

describe this voter

[Kleine Scheiße]

blue dog who was in younger years as a college student Quite the Liberal

[AtorBoltox]

Someone who uses a coin flip to decide their vote

[Alben Barkley]

Coin flip is most accurate but let me give it a semi-serious shot:

Started out pretty liberal as a young idealist backing Civil Rights, admiring JFK, and fearing Goldwater, so naturally supported LBJ in 1964. However, soured on him after he escalated the Vietnam War and thought the 1968 Democratic nomination was rigged; voted Nixon in part as a protest vote and in part because they believed he would end Vietnam sooner. But then they soured on Nixon when that didn’t really happen, so voted for McGovern as the avowed peace candidate and progressive. Voted Carter because he was the more liberal outsider and hated the corruption of Watergate and the Nixon pardon. Voted for him again because they still liked his honesty and dovishness and thought Reagan was too conservative. Voted Mondale for similar reasons.

However, by 1988 this person was now in their 40s and doing well financially, so they were attracted to Bush’s pledge of “no new taxes.” Moreover, they were impressed that Reagan had somewhat de-escalated the Cold War against expectations, and thought Bush would continue that work while being “kinder and gentler” and more moderate than Reagan. Voted for Bush again despite the tax increase because they approved of his foreign policy at the end of the Cold War, and didn’t really trust Clinton. But by 1996 they were extremely satisfied with the way the economy was going under Clinton, so voted for him that time. Then voted for Gore in 2000 for similar reasons, plus they didn’t really care about the Lewinsky scandal or like how the GOP handled it.

But 9/11 shocked this person (now reaching their 60s by 2004) and they did not trust John Kerry to be tough enough on terror, so voted for Bush. Became disillusioned with Iraq in Bush’s second term however, plus the economic downturn, so they voted for Obama. Weren’t satisfied with the pace of economic recovery and lack of  great “change” in Obama’s first term so voted for Romney. Thought Trump was extreme and untrustworthy so voted for Clinton. But voted for Trump next time because by now this person is in their 70s and increasingly socially conservative, plus they thought things weren't as bad as feared in Trump’s first term.

As for demographics, I’d guess a white middle class Midwesterner or something. Perhaps a suburbanite with some college education. Genuine swing voter. And while it sounds like an implausible voting pattern at first, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few people who actually did fit this pattern.

[MATTROSE94]

One of my old assistant managers at Kmart (who was born in Virginia in 1941 and died in 2020), would kind off meet this description, though he hated George W. Bush, Donald Trump, and Richard Nixon, voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, and thought that Mitt Romney was a rich mans politician who didn’t understand the needs of working class voters.