What will the parties do as more and more voters go independent?

Independent voters are poised to break the duopoly that has kept a stranglehold on American politics ever since Grant defeated Lee at Appomattox.

Frankly, both Democrats and Republicans should have seen this coming. At last count, a record 43 percent of Americans have declared their independence from a political party, with nearly two-thirds viewing both parties equally negatively. The major parties’ respective decisions to nominate historically unpopular candidates for president three cycles in a row hasn’t done them any favors.

“Independents are just closet Republicans and Democrats,” claims Mike Murphy , a Republican strategist, host of the Hacks on Tap podcast, and co-director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California.

Sorry, Mike. That’s just not true.

Independent voters are so dissatisfied, so disgusted with the current state of our union that they’re ready to lend support to the likes of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Cornel West, Jill Stein, Nikki Haley, No Labels, or even “Uninstructed” — all of whom more closely align with this key demographic’s maverick spirit and middle-of-the-road common sense values.

Enticing these voters back into the idea of a binary choice will not be achieved through negative ads, intimidation, or fearmongering. Any partisan political strategist claiming that to possess the secret sauce to sway independents has likely spent too much time getting high off their own party’s confirmation bias when it comes to messaging and tactics. 

“It’s getting really old at this point,” Phoenix resident and registered independent Julie Goldhammer told U.S. News and World Report as recently as April 4. If more than 60 percent of your audience views your product as the electoral equivalent of a sick chicken, you’re gonna need to try to upend things. The only way to bring these folks back into the fold is by acknowledging the underlying issues that have forced them to seek an alternative in the first-place — dysfunction, exhaustion, a fringe-focused political culture, and disincentives to find real solutions.

On Super Tuesday, more than six million independent voters were denied the opportunity to weigh in on the still competitive primary between Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. This exacerbates an already latent enthusiasm gap among the electorate heading into the general election this fall. Depressed folks staying home or otherwise avoiding their local polling place on Election Day does not for a healthy democracy make, especially, when it can all be easily remedied.

Were either party to adopt ranked-choice voting, work to expand independent voter access through open primaries, or enact legislation to end dark money influence peddling, it would almost certainly see a surge in support from the disaffected kitchen table constituency.

Proposing new rules within the body politic itself that would punish any elected member for propagating egregious partisan theatrics, or trafficking in proven disinformation, or abuse of free speech would likely also be very well received.

At the end of the day, winning elections is just the tip of spear. The goal is to govern. The consequence of continuing with business as usual, without providing independent voters and their unique concerns a seat at the table, will prove fatal to the future of liberal democracy.

Jared Alper is political director at Good Party.