Ok, and this is not profound, we've known it forever, who's the guy that said there's a dimes thickness of difference in the two parties, you always know, lol. Anyway, it really and truly is way past time for a third party (at least) independents are in the upper thirty % now. If they really would vote independent, one of the other parties, Green, Libertarian, what have you, just imagine what that would do to the two party albatross.
George Wallace while running as the American Independent Party back in 1968 said, "There's not a dimes worth of difference between the two parties."
Actually according to Gallup, as of 7 September of this year the party affiliation is broken down 26% identify or affiliate themselves with the Democratic Party, 25% with the Republican Party and 47% profess to be independents. Of those 47% who say they are independents, 16% lean towards the Democrats, 22% towards the Republicans and 9% are classified as true independent. Here is the history of Party affiliation since 1935, just in case you are interested.
Here is a list of party affiliation from 1935 to present. I find it quite interesting that the Republican Party has never been higher than 35% of the electorate and that occurred in both 1945 and 1955. Truman had replaced FDR in 1945 and WWII had come to an end. In 1955 Eisenhower was president and was popular with both parties. Everyone liked IKE. Whereas the Democrats have been as high as 52%, 1965 a year after the Goldwater debacle and passage of the civil rights act of 1964 and as low as 30% which the Democrats registered in 2011 and 2013. The Republicans all time low was 21% the year after Nixon resigned from office in 1975 because of Watergate. Today’s mark of 26% for the Democrats ties their record low which was recorded on August 14th of 2011.
Pew Research for the 1935-2000 numbers/Gallup for 2005-Today
Year…Dem…Rep…Ind…Ind.Lean.Dem….Ind.Lean.Rep…..True.Ind
1935…51……30……19
1940…50……32……18
1945…47……35…..18
1950…48……32…..20
1955…47……35…..18
1960…51……29…..20
1965…52……24….24
1970…47……27…..26
1975…51……21…..28
1980…45……27…..28
1985…40……32…...28
1990…38……30…..32
1995…32……32…..36
2000…34……30…..36
2005…34……33……30………..14…………………....8…………………8
2010…32……33…..34………..12……………………15…………………7
2011…30……27…..42………..18……………………15…………………9
2012…35……30…..33………..16……………………12…………………5
2013…30……24….44………..14…………………..18………………..13
2014…26……25….47………..16…………………..22………………….9…..As of September 7, 2014