Call it the American independent streak. No matter how it might seem from watching the TV shout shows, the nation isn’t divided between Republicans and Democrats. It’s more divided than that! Don’t forget the independents, who for many reasons—Libertarian? Socialist? Fed Up?—don’t align with one of the two major parties. While Democrats and Republicans are certainly the loudest voices in the room (they have the most practice), they are certainly not the only voices. You might not know it to hear it, but neither party has a majority of the nation on its rolls. As Casey Stengel used to say, you can look it up.
The Pew Research Center looked at party affiliation among voters from 1992-2016 and found: “Overall, 48 percent of all registered voters identify as Democrats or lean Democratic compared with 44 percent who identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP.” Those results were published in September 2016 in an election year with two wildly unpopular presidential candidates.
Fast forward to this year, July in particular, when the Washington Examiner reported that Democrats have a higher number of registered voters in states that require party registration. From the paper: “Overall, 40 percent of voters in 31 party registration states are Democrats, 29 percent are Republicans, and 28 percent are independents.” The number of independents is growing as a block of voters.
Here in Arkansas, a famously independent state, independents outnumber registered Republicans and Democrats, according to the Arkansas Poll. In 2017, the poll showed 35 percent of Arkansas voters identified as independents, compared to 24 percent as Democrats and 29 percent as Republicans.
Its always been thus in this small but wonderfully individualistic state. In 1968, Arkansas voted for George Wallace, Winthrop Rockefeller and J. William Fulbright. Talk about splitting the vote!
Maybe all those independents identify as such because they’re tired of Washington and the lack of bipartisan support to accomplish anything. Stopgap funding measures, an endless cascade of blocked nominations, the elusive solution to our immigration problem and more are enough to frustrate on a regular basis.
When 28 percent of voters are registered as independents in 31 states, that means neither party can secure a majority hold in government without them. President Trump’s base isn’t a majority, but neither is Chuck Schumer’s.
If you’re an independent voter, prepare yourself for more suitors coming a-courting. The secret is out, and both major parties know just how much power you wield.