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A record number of Americans are now claiming they are independents. This chart of party identification from Gallup does a great job of depicting in broad strokes the recent trajectory of American politics. From Gallup:
In 2005 the disaster of the war in Iraq and the corruption of the Republican Congress starting turning votes away from the GOP and towards the Democratic party. As a result we saw big wins for Democrats in 2006 and 2008 as Americans stopped identifying with Republicans and starting seeing themselves as Democrats.
President Obama’s horrible mismanagement of his first two years in office caused a massive movement away from the Democrats and a small return to the GOP. This produced the big Republican wave of 2010.
Since taking control of the House the Republicans’ awful behavior has driven support for Congress to new lows and turned regular people against the GOP. This drop in support for the GOP, however, hasn’t caused people to start seeing themselves as Democrats again. The American people still feel burned by the Democrats’ failure to deliver for regular people from 2009-2010.
We have a country upset with both parties and the whole political system that is rigged to keep these two failed parties as our only choices. This dynamic is manifested in different ways. In addition to having a record number of people saying they are not aligning with either party, the young populist energy in the country is now flowing into direct political action that isn’t partisan, such as the occupy movement.
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File this under, “It’s about fucking time. Now, do something about it!”
Change happens slowly young grasshopper. “At last the falling drop will wear the stone” Marcus Aurelius Antonius
From 1995 to 2011 the percentage of independents has gone up 1%.
This is a tremendously good indication that the people are beginning to understand what is going on. Time is on our side, I think. Neither party is going to help the middle class and the poor and things will get worse. I think by the 2016 elections we may see an honest turn-around and people will have already taken to the streets or they will be ready to.
58% identify with the legacy parties. I like the trend but a majority of my countrymen remain ignorant. I like to think OWS is accelerating the process.
Democrats and Republicans took away our constitution, our democracy and our freedom. Wake up damn it. The house is on fire.
Mr. Walker, what’s the definition of independent?
Is it American Independent Party (here in CA voter reg form) or the CA voter reg form equivalent of ‘no I don’t want to register for a political party’? Also referred to as ‘decline to state’ in other state voter reg forms?
Thanks . . .
Does that graph make anybody else nauseous????? I have trouble focusing.
one would expect that fewer Americans will identify as independents in 2012 than in 2011.
Ask a fireman…lots of people “smell smoke” but still don’t do anything. I am hoping that damn “beeping” will stir enough to make difference. BUt, I’m not holidng my breath. (Pun intended)
Yeah, it’s a record, but it’s not really a very dramatic change.
All depends on how you calibrate the graph……..:-)
Life is too short to be dependent upon the rate of growth of political awareness in America. But, thanks for the “young.” ;-)
And the reasoning behind your statement is…?
It is what you call yourself when they ask
Like any graph one can make it show just about anything one would like, depending upon the start/end points, eg, from 2003 to 2011 independent registrations increased 4 percentage points. Interesting but meaningless.
That WAS nice. Only people who call me “young” are over 80. Oh, and Stevie Wonder.
Where is the big change? 58% are still hanging onto old party labels. The 40% Indie is unchanged since the mid-90′s. The other 2% are voting for the rest of the meaningless and marginalized candidates and parties.
The headline concludes “American People Turn Against Party Identification”, but the poll identifies that that that trend is always (except for Perot in ’92) reversed by the election.
That IS interesting. Makes sense since, it’s THEN that you HAVE to pick, one way or the other.
Sounds like the same methodology economists use to predict outcomes and their record isn’t too hot.
This doesn’t really have anything to do with voting behavior. 90% of the population are Democrats, Democratic-leaning independents, Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. The “leaners” have voting records are that just as partisan as those who identify as Democrats or Republicans- in many cases, they tend to be even more purist on party issues. Only 10% of the voting population can be described as true swing voters, and these people tend to be highly suspicious of government, business, or both. In terms of actual voting behavior, the independent voter is more of a myth perpetuated by those who don’t like to admit how partisan our country really is.
Given that there are local maxima in the percentage of self-identified Independents the year before presidential elections since 1995, and that the margin of error is ±1 percentage point, the most that can be said is that last year, Americans identified with political parties in exactly the same as 2007 (the last year before a presidential election), within the error bars. Anything else is wishful thinking by Mr. Walker.
It is clear to me that if polls ran the Country we would be better off than we are with POLS running the Country.
I have no idea if you are correct in your assessment, esp as you provide no links. That said, I am *guessing* that what you say is reasonably accurate.
I definitely feel that our nation has been carefully taught to be very partisan and very party-identified. Works out like a charm for the 1% that way.
Our best chance is to have a coup on the same day that a paparazzi gets a good shot of Britney without panties.
Another picture of Britney going commando is not something I like to think about. “g”
The poll implys Dem. on the left, Ind. in the middle and Rep. on the right, but (as you point out, and) your point can be even stronger if you look at most FDL members who seem quite independent, yet are probably left of Identifying as Dem.
Same is probably true of many strongly independent conservatives who do not self-identify as Rep.
The “Ind. leaning Dem.” or “Ind. leaning Rep. does not take into account from which direction they lean.
American Independent party is an extremely conservative political party, I think David Duke has something to do with it.
In addition to party affiliation, Gallup has been polling ideological affiliation. This ideological affiliation polling has been remarkably stable over the past 20 years – Conservatives:40%; Moderates:39%; and, Liberals:21%.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/148745/political-ideology-stable-conservatives-leading.aspx
(Reply to #29). That statistic is quoted by conservatives constantly to try to marginalize liberals. It seems unbelievable, and it is. The use of “liberal” has been made a pejorative like “communist” and “socialist” were before it, so people don’t like to self-identify as one. On the other hand, a 2007 poll showed that “progressive” was the most favorable political term in America (35% viewed it favorably). And, if you poll people on specific issues rather than asking them to label themselves, they overwhelmingly favor positions generally viewed as “liberal” for example, support of universal health care.
OT-Bill Daley out as chief of staff, replaced by Lew.
I gotta agree with that. I don;t want to claim to be an expert, but I wasn’t “impressed” with her previous photos.
Jack Lew???? THis guy has TWO first names.
Would the support still be overwhelming if the poll honestly asked about “support of universal health care, at a cost of xx% of your income?”
Hey, I have three first names. When are they gonna put me in charge of something?
That xx% would more than likely be much less than you pay for shitty private insurance now. With a pool of every person drawing a paycheck the cost of health care would be dramatically lower.
Just say, “Hi Jack!”