An Independent America: Voters leaving Republican, Democratic parties in droves

A recent analysis conducted by USA Today showed that American voters are fed up with both mainstream political parties and are leaving them in droves.

The newspaper claims that “More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections.”

Over the last decade this trend has only seemed to accelerate says USA Today. While many people feel there is little difference in the parties, their options remain slim. Yet, voters switching to Independent have climbed dramatically.

According to the statistics gathered from eight swing states, “Democrats’ registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans’ by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000.”

Nationally, Democrats still outnumber Republicans 42 million registered voters to 30 million, however Dems have lost the most voters since 2008. Meanwhile Independents are becoming a viable party in itself with 24 million registered voters.

USA Today claims the reasons for the exodus to be negative campaigning by both major parties, people dying off the rolls, people leaving in disgust, and some are stripped of their status for being “inactive voters.”

They state that the upward trend benefits Independent-minded politicians like Ralph Nader and Ron Paul.

This trend would appear to be poised to explode as Congress ended 2011 with the lowest one-time approval rating ever of 11%. According to last week’s Gallup poll for the year, Congress’ annual average was also a record-low at 17%.

Gary Bartlett, the North Carolina elections director, was quoted as saying “whoever is attractive to the unaffiliated voter” will win the 2012 election.