These voters are more powerful than Dems, GOP

Hyper-partisan polarization is making America’s politics a play-to-the-base mess. But there’s one hopeful trend that doesn’t get enough attention — and it’s front and center in the New Hampshire primaries.

I’m talking about the rise of independent voters — those folks who refuse to align with either party. If you listen to professional partisans, you’d think that independent voters are rarer than unicorns. But in New Hampshire, they make up roughly 42% of the state’s registered voters, outnumbering both registered Republicans and Democrats. And thanks to the Granite State’s open primary system, independent voters can cast a ballot for whoever they believe is the best candidate in either party. What a concept, right?!

It might surprise you to find out that independent voters actually make up a plurality nationwide as well — rising up to 45% of Americans in the latest Gallup poll, while self-identified Democrats and Republicans sit at 27% each.

Black History: Fredrick Patterson

But professional partisans love to dismiss and denigrate independent voters. They ignore the fact that their numbers have risen from 33% in 1988 while the two parties’ share has declined over the past three decades as they have grown more polarized.

Independent voters are not a monolith but they have proactively chosen not to identify with the dominant two parties in our politics — and their opinions usually track national opinions more closely than either Democrats or Republicans alone.

This makes sense at a time when the two parties are more ideologically and geographically divided than at any time in our recent history. For example, independents who lean center-right are more likely to be libertarian in their beliefs on issues like gay marriage and marijuana legalization.

So it’s not a surprise that the libertarian congressman from Michigan, Justin Amash, chose to leave the Republican Party and declare his independence on July 4th of last year.

“Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape,” he wrote. “Most Americans are not rigidly partisan and do not feel well represented by either of the two major parties … Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.”

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