The Muddled Middle

Swing voters occupy the middle of the Asplund Chart.

The swing voter category includes people who are any of the following:
 – only lightly attached to parties or candidates
 – occasional or infrequent voters
 – not particularly ideological
 – mostly indifferent to or annoyed by politics
 – not participants in electoral politics

Political life can be tough for swing voters. A lot of swing voters have views that aren't well represented by either party, so they often have to decide to support a particular candidate based on one or a few key issues. While many politicians claim to speak for the political center, politicians of every stripe come across as self-serving or dishonest to many swing voters. This can lead even very politically engaged swing voters to sit out most elections.

Both parties court swing voters with talk of centrism, unity, compromise, reasonableness, bipartisanship, moderation, good government, responsiveness, efficiency, openness and transparency. Political analysts try to figure out what mix of issues gives a candidate the maximal appeal to likely swing voters in a particular race. Candidates try to reduce the swing voter appeal of their opponents by tagging them as extremists, ideologues or obstructionists.

Once in office, though, politicians have little incentive to follow through on any campaign promises to swing voters. Swing voters don't generally donate their time and energy to electioneering efforts, so successful candidates don't owe them anything. They aren't very well organized and don't put pressure on politicians to follow through on promises. Many swing voters don't even follow politics closely enough to know that they've been betrayed or ignored.

Political decisions at the federal level have expanded and displaced personal, economic and social decision-making in many areas. Moral politics (of both the left and right), employment regulations, energy policies and environmental protections are just a few of the ways the federal government has replaced more informal ways of resolving disputes with political ones. This politicization gives more people an incentive to be involved in and aware of politics, but doesn't change the way swing voters are treated by elected officials. Courting the middle is important to getting elected, but not to governing.

The failure of centrist movements like the Coffee Party and No Labels demonstrates how weak swing voters are when it comes to generating political action. The Asplund Chart shows swing voters as being in favor of a pragmatic, competing powers political system. There is neither a unifying political end or means for swing voter movements, so they usually lose steam quickly.