Whether it’s religion, relationships, or politics, Americans are getting more fickle, experts say. Seniors citizens are more open to divorce, college students are more open to changing schools, and more than 40% of Americans will switch religions, notes one pollster. All this could be bad news for President Obama, Politico reports, if the wave of support that carried him into office quickly disappears.
Leaders should realize “you can go from top to bottom and bottom to top much more quickly,” says the pollster. “Loyalty is a thing of the past.” Coming “out of nowhere,” Obama “benefited from the looser ties people have today,” one professor says. “But the flip side is that he cannot count on the depth of support that a winning candidate might have had a generation ago.” (More President Obama stories.)