[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"insight-do-you-fit-either-party":3},{"article":4,"related":27},{"title":5,"description":6,"summary":7,"published_at":8,"updated_at":9,"reading_time":10,"author":11,"tags":14,"featured":17,"feature_image":18,"feature_image_alt":19,"related":20,"seo_title":23,"slug":24,"path":25,"html":26},"Half of Our US Takers Don't Fit Either Party's Package","We checked 2,640 US DNA Scan results against the two bundles American politics sells — left on economics, culture and the world, or right on all three. 53 in 100 matched neither.","Ballots offer two bundles. About half of our US takers hold neither — and almost none of them are centrists. Here's what the other half actually looks like.","2026-10-30T09:00:00Z","2026-10-29T21:00:00Z",4,{"name":12,"role":13},"Mike Sertic","Founder, Political DNA",[15,16],"Research","Election 2026",false,"\u002Fimages\u002Finsights\u002Felection-2026-fit.png","A grid of 100 dots: 29 blue, 18 red, and 53 gray, labeled '53 in 100 US takers whose views don't fit either party's package'",[21,22],"what-the-left-right-line-misses","what-are-political-paradoxes","Half of US Takers Don't Fit Either Party's Package | Political DNA","do-you-fit-either-party","\u002Finsights\u002Fdo-you-fit-either-party","\u003Cp>On Tuesday, most American ballots will offer a choice between two bundles. One leans toward regulation and redistribution, progressive cultural change, and international engagement. The other leans toward freer markets, traditional values, and national sovereignty. Those are rough summaries of the two parties' platforms, and they are also three of the four things the DNA Scan measures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So we asked our own data a simple question: how many people actually hold one of those bundles?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>What we counted\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>We took every US result from the current version of the DNA Scan: 2,640 people who took it between June 11 and October 29, 2026, counting each person once. Each Scan scores four axes from 0 to 100. For this count we used three of them, the ones the two platforms divide on most consistently: economics, culture, and nation versus world. A score counts as "left" or "right" when it falls more than five points from the midpoint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cdiv class=\"insight-callout\">\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>29 in 100 matched the left bundle on all three. 18 in 100 matched the right bundle. The other 53 matched neither.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fdiv>\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Finsights\u002Felection-2026-fit.png\" alt=\"A grid of 100 dots: 29 blue for the left bundle, 18 red for the right bundle, 53 gray for a mix\">\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Who are the 53?\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Not centrists. Only about 1 in 125 of our takers sat in the middle on all three questions. The rest lean one way or the other; their positions just don't line up into either package. The three most common combinations (all left on economics, which reflects our sample's lean):\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Left on economics, traditional on culture, national over global (6%).\u003C\u002Fstrong> The largest mix by a nose, and a third the size of the entire right bundle.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Left on economics and culture, in the middle on the world (6%).\u003C\u002Fstrong> The left bundle, minus its internationalism.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Left on economics, progressive on culture, national over global (6%).\u003C\u002Fstrong> Progressive at home, wary of commitments abroad.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>Here is the economics and culture picture on its own, split at the midpoint of each scale:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fimages\u002Finsights\u002Felection-2026-map.png\" alt=\"Heatmap of 2,640 US takers by economic and cultural score: 46% left on both, 24% right on both, 13% left on economics and traditional on culture, 9% pro-market and progressive on culture\">\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>The bundles are held more strongly\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>There is a second pattern. People who match a bundle hold it firmly: on average their scores sit 27 to 29 points from the midpoint. The 53 sit about 14 points out, roughly half as far. Most people who fit neither package hold milder views, not contrarian ones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But not all of them. About 1 in 11 of our takers holds strong views, more than fifteen points from the middle, that land on opposite sides. No line on Tuesday's ballot matches them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Read this before you quote it\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>This is not a poll.\u003C\u002Fstrong> These are people who chose to take a political assessment online, not a random sample of voters. The numbers describe \u003Cem>PoliticalDNA takers\u003C\u002Fem>, not the electorate.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Our takers lean left on average\u003C\u002Fstrong> (a mean economic score of 42 and a mean cultural score of 56, where 50 is the midpoint). That is why the left bundle is bigger than the right. Don't read 29 versus 18 as a forecast.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Where you draw "the middle" matters, but not to the conclusion.\u003C\u002Fstrong> With no middle band at all, 44% match neither bundle. With a band ten points wide on each side, 66% do.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>"US" means IP-located.\u003C\u002Fstrong> We place a result from the location of the device that finished the Scan. About one taker in five couldn't be placed and is left out.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>The fourth axis, personal liberty versus community standards, isn't in the count because the two platforms don't divide cleanly on it. Adding it could only make the mixed group larger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Which one are you?\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The DNA Scan is a free four-minute assessment. It places you on all four axes and shows which of 32 political archetypes you sit closest to. \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fdna-scan\u002F\">Take the DNA Scan\u003C\u002Fa> before Tuesday, and see whether you're in a bundle or one of the 53.\u003C\u002Fp>\n",[28,44],{"title":29,"description":30,"summary":31,"published_at":32,"updated_at":32,"reading_time":33,"author":34,"tags":35,"featured":17,"feature_image":37,"feature_image_alt":38,"related":39,"seo_title":42,"slug":21,"path":43},"We Measured What the Left–Right Line Misses","We asked our own data to draw the single best left-right line it could. It captured 64% of what distinguishes people politically. Here's what's in the other 36% — and what a 1969 chart got right.","If the left-right spectrum is broken, you should be able to measure the break. So we did: the best one-dimensional line our respondent data can draw still misses about a third of what makes people politically distinct.","2026-07-23T09:00:00Z",5,{"name":12,"role":13},[15,36],"Political Spectrum","\u002Fimages\u002Finsights\u002Fwhat-the-line-misses.jpg","Eight colored points in two dimensions collapsing onto a single gray left-right line",[40,41],"why-left-right-is-broken","four-dimensions-political-identity","We Measured What the Left–Right Line Misses | Political DNA","\u002Finsights\u002Fwhat-the-left-right-line-misses",{"title":45,"description":46,"summary":47,"published_at":48,"updated_at":48,"reading_time":49,"author":50,"tags":51,"featured":17,"feature_image":53,"feature_image_alt":54,"related":55,"seo_title":56,"slug":22,"path":57},"What Are Political Paradoxes?","Political paradoxes are belief combinations that seem contradictory but reveal deeper values. Learn why your 'inconsistent' views might be your most interesting.","Everyone has been told their beliefs are 'inconsistent.' But what if those contradictions aren't confusion — they're the most interesting thing about how you think?","2025-12-08T14:00:00Z",6,{"name":12,"role":13},[15,52],"Paradoxes","\u002Fimages\u002Finsights\u002Fpolitical-paradoxes.jpg","Political paradox concept visualization",[41,40],"What Are Political Paradoxes? When Beliefs Don't Fit the Box","\u002Finsights\u002Fwhat-are-political-paradoxes"]