… it’s time we face an uncomfortable truth: the truly undecided voter is a myth. What we’re really seeing is a phenomenon of hidden Trump supporters, too embarrassed or afraid to admit their true intentions.”
– Joan Westenberg
Watching a few of the post-debate discussions with so-called ‘undecided voters’ last night, I got the distinct feeling from a couple of them – who said, in effect, ‘I’m still undecided, I need more information about Harris’ – that they were actually simply covering up that they were, in fact, almost certainly planning to vote for Trump. But for whatever reasons, they just didn’t want to go public with their support for him… which would be sadly understandable.
And then today I came across this analysis, from Joan Westenberg. I think Joan makes a valid point, though I don’t think it necessarily applies to all undecideds. Some, many, just aren’t as tuned in to politics as the rest of us political junkies. Also, I believe some who are ‘covering up’ their true intentions are doing so for the opposite reason. They have decided to abandon Trump but don’t want to make that obvious to their fellow Trump supporters.
We tend to generalize, almost by default it seems, but in fact we are all unique individuals with complex, often indecipherable motivations, even to ourselves.
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