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Civics 101

Independents

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What prevents someone from affiliating with a political party? What is the ideology of an independent? And how can these voters exist in a two party system? Walking us through the world of the party outsiders is political scientist Samara Klar, head of IndependentVoting.org, Jacqueline Salit and president of New Hampshire Independent Voters, Tiani Coleman. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Civics 101 is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

0:04.9

I want to run a super quick experiment on Unic.

0:08.5

All right, let me have it.

0:12.8

All right, for this to work, let's just say that you are either a Republican or you're a Democrat,

0:17.2

okay?

0:17.6

Hypocetically, okay, yeah.

0:19.7

You're moving into a new neighborhood and you're looking at two different houses.

0:24.8

One is next to a person who shares your party affiliation, okay?

0:29.2

Your neighbor is the same party as you.

0:31.9

The other house is next to someone who identifies as a member of the opposing party.

0:38.2

The house is being otherwise a like and dignity, which one do you pick?

0:43.8

Ah, this seems like you're pulling one over on me, but of course I would like to live

0:50.1

somebody who shares my party affiliation and beliefs.

0:53.4

Okay, now let's throw a third house into the mix.

0:58.0

But this house is next to an unaffiliated voter.

1:01.8

Someone who identifies as an independent, they don't have a party.

1:06.4

Does that change your pick?

1:09.0

Yeah, um, honestly, it does.

1:12.3

Because I feel like I could learn something from that person and dust about myself.

1:16.4

Why do you ask?

1:21.1

If there's one thing the Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on,

1:24.5

it's that independence are the best.

...

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