Except that the 42 to 44 % you speak of in neither party still votes for one or the other party at well over a 90 % rate.
Mod/Con DEMs are still around, as you know with me; as you know with the Con DEMs in the Senate; not so much in the House;
GOPs want no part of my plans to fix the Pension Problem, let alone DEMs. The ruling trifecta has no clue on Issues, such as desperately needed Infrastructure and Energy Grid.
The ruling gov't is MIA and AWOL on opioids and psychotropics, especially deleterious to Veterans with PTSD. While even the ultra conservative American Legion advocated this past August for trump to legalize medical weed for PTSD Veterans.
Every new day brings multiple crises with this '****ing moron'. This is without a doubt infinitely worse than Ryan impeaching Clinton had she won, which he would have, and then McConnell continuing to stall All action in the Senate while putting Clinton on trial, giving us a Constitutional Crisis. Goldwater would not like this.
Come visit the sports forums sometime. That's where I mostly hang out these days. Braves should be better next year ...
They don't have a choice in most cases. On the presidential level last year 12% of independents voted third party. There were more than just two names on the ballot for that office. That 12% is roughly 23% of the 54% of independents who stated they disliked both major party candidates. When you get down to senate, representative, governor and the local races there usually isn't but two names on the ballot, the Republican and Democrat. Although the Libertarian Party does ran a candidate for the senate here in Georgia, but not for any other office.
For most independents it has become a case of holding one's nose and voting for the lesser of two evils, the least horrible candidate, not the candidate you want to win, but against the candidate you want to lose the most. We have to be realist here, the two major parties have a monopoly on our election system. They aren't about to let any third party become viable. They write our election laws and do so as a mutual protection act.
What independents do, is switch their votes from one party to the other and back again. Over the last eight years Republicans have received a low 39% of the independent vote to a high of 57%. Democrats on the other hand have received a low of 40% and a high of 57% from independents. They don't really have a choice but to vote for one of the two major party candidates even though they might hate both candidates and parties.
But what the above figures show is 40% of independents are going to vote Republican and 40% Democratic. Who the other 20% are going to vote for is anyone's guess. If we had a viable third party, would independents be voting Republican or Democratic in the same percentages, I highly doubt it. But as long as we are locked into the two party system, voters, independents don't have a choice. They will continue to go to the polls and vote against the candidate and party they hate the least.
According to YouGov nationally 37% of all Americans have a very or somewhat favorable view of the Democratic Party, among independents that very/somewhat falls to 19%. The Democratic Party isn't that well liked. The Republican Party is worst nationally, 29% of all Americans have a positive view of that party, but among independents and independents only, 19% view the GOP in a very or somewhat favorable view. Same as the Democratic Party. No love for either party among independents, hence if a viable third party was available which it is not, I do think they would be flocking to it.
Here, there is a wealth of information in the yougov poll. Questions 148 and 149 deal with political parties.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/zev5z2887d/econTabReport.pdf
