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There is a persistent sense that the two main political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans, are too far apart ideologically and that another group should fill the void.
Several prominent politicians and aspiring politicians are relaunching an effort to create a major third party, simply called “Come in.”
There is a major problem with these efforts, and previous third-party efforts have likely failed in the recent past: they are based on a false assumption that “independent” voters actually exist.
To be clear, most Americans are fed up with what’s happening in Washington, DC As Forward’s founders point out, 80 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. But there are probably hundreds of reasons, many of them contradictory, that Americans feel this way.
Many people who are fed up with Democrats feel that President Joe Biden and many Democratic members of Congress are too moderate, or at least not aggressive enough to push their agenda, even in the face of Republican opposition. These people want action on climate change. They want women’s bodily autonomy protected. Some want higher wages and better paid leave policies Some want universal health care. These things, by the way, are generally popular with most Americans, regardless of party affiliation. I should also note that Maine has made progress on many of these issues with Democrats at the helm in Augusta, and that Democrats in Congress have also pushed many of these things unsuccessfully.
These voters aren’t looking for Democrats to be more “in the middle.”
Likewise, some conservatives believe that the Republican Party is too moderate. They want less taxes and a border wall. Some want to make the national ban on abortion and same-sex marriage illegal. (To be fair, that’s what national platform of the GOP it basically says, but they haven’t made it a reality yet). Some are even prepared for armed conflict if their priorities are not met.
These people are not likely to make common cause with disenfranchised Democrats who feel their party is too timid.
However, those who register to vote as “independents” or unregistered are the largest voting bloc in the WE, and their number has been growing. Unregistered voters outnumbered registered Democrats and Republicans in Maine for years, but Democrats currently have the upper hand registered voters.
So what does it mean to be “independent”? It does not necessarily mean that a voter is middle of the road and not aligned with either major party. The studies have Found that three-quarters of independent voters are aligned with either the Republican or Democratic Party, which is part of the reason why, despite a large number of independent candidates, the parties’ candidates tend to win elections.
But given the negative connotations associated with both parties, and their increased bickering, voters are unwilling to acknowledge their party leanings.
“They’re not actually changing their views on politics,” Samara Klar, a political scientist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the book “Independent Politics.” said FiveThirtyEight last year. “[Independents] they are simply refusing to publicly identify themselves as partisan.”
The problem with our politics is not what the voters are called. It’s a lot of things, many of which they like campaign financing i redistrictthe Supreme Court has made it more difficult to solve.
It is the large amount of money spent by powerful individuals and interest groups to influence elections. It’s the time the candidates spend and the contortions they go through to secure some of that money.
It includes the filibuster, which Republicans — currently the minority party in the US Senate — have used to stall action on a number of important issues in recent years.
It is partisan gerrymandering, which has allowed parties to shape electoral districts to their advantage.
There’s a new threat, a fallout from former President Donald Trump’s persistent lies that won the 2020 election: attempts to install hyper-partisans in positions, such as secretaries of elections and secretaries of state, that control elections . Various deniers of the 2020 election results won the primaries earlier this week.
And, there is the growing unpleasantness of politics in general. A small subset of voters is increasingly hostile toward politicians and policies they don’t like. They do not shy away from harassing and threatening public officials. This probably discourages qualified and innovative people from running for office at a time when we need new ideas and new energy.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it shows where reformers should focus their attention if they want to change our national political climate. Creating a third party is not the answer.
