It's T-less than two weeks until the 2012 Presidential election and with the candidates basically tied in the polls, Undecided Voters are having their quadrennial moment. I have never actually met an Undecided Voter—though I suspect that has to do with living in California (media riddle: If an Undecided voter lives in a non-swing state, does he truly exist?)—however I did spend some time studying the species in the lead-up to the 2004 election as part of a grad school project on group identity and that, obviously, makes me an expert on the subject. (I even crafted a ballot just for them.)
Cynics might argue Democrats and Republicans are basically interchangeable, but there is no denying there are some principle differences between the two. And presumably as one ages, one gains Life Experience, which comes in handy when making political decisions. Simplistic yet surprisingly common example: You didn't feel strongly about gay marriage, but last year your daughter came out and now you want a president who will support your daughter's rights. (Or you disapprove of her lifestyle and consequently disowned her, so now you want a president who supports your judgement. Either way: decision made.)
So I find it mind-boggling when full-functioning adults, who presumably can get themselves dressed in the morning and tell you what they'd like for breakfast, find it so impossibly difficult to identify any, ANY—big, small, serious, superficial—qualities of two human beings that makes one more appealing than the other. Yet, so it goes, every four years. I am starting to think maybe the Undecided Voter is not the crazy person, but the crazy person is me, who, applying Einstein's definition of insanity, participates in the same presidential election process every four years, each time thinking "Come on, the difference is so obvious! There can't possibly be any Unded—oh wait..."
Image courtesy of The Oregonian