The lead article in USA Today is entitled “Voters leaving Republican, Democratic parties in droves”. It reports: “More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow.”
Yet these statistics must grossly understate the growing chasm between the party(s) and those who simply remain registered simply to vote in primaries.
Of course there are the perennial Green, Libertarian, Constitutional and other special parties, but none of them have support apart from a hard core.
We have little doubt that Ron Paul could run this year as an independent and draw sufficient support to tank any Republican candidate. To that party’s great relief, Paul has promised not to do so.
For the same reason, President Barack Obama can count his blessing that no prominent liberal is contesting the election. If a Ralph Nader could tilt the voting ins 2000 towards “W” and Ross Perot enable Bill Clinton to defeat a popular George H. W. Bush (41),in 2016 with the presidency possibly without an incumbent, the door would be wide open for one or more new major parties.
We suspect that 2012 may be the last national election that will be a two party race. Both the growth of the Occupy movement and the Tea Party suggests dissatisfaction with both parties to a level that real alternatives will likely be on the way.
There is no better example of party politicians not representing the interests of the people they purport to serve than our own Joe “the pits” Pitts. (Sorry, I could not help myself) Anyway, Joe’s career voting record is scored by the big business lobby, the American Chamber of Commerce at 92%; meaning he has voted their position 92% of the time for all the years he has been in office. When you look at his career score by the AFL-CIO, at 5%, you get a clear idea of just who’s interests Joe is serving. This is not an issue of big business versus labor, both have legitimate interests. The issue is one of balance, 92% versus 5% is just despicable.