Study: Third Party Registration Increases while Duopolist Dead-Enders Continue to Decline

As more and more Americans realize that the Democratic and Republican Parties exist primarily, and almost exclusively, as a vehicle to forward the interests of multinational corporations and the global warfare state – and hence serve interests that are diametrically opposed to those of the people of the United States, it is only logical that fewer and fewer Americans will identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats or with the Democratic and Republican Parties.

I have speculated before, half-jokingly, that we may soon reach a point at which the only people who are willing to identify themselves as Democrats and Republicans are those who are paid to do so – the professional apologists of the two-party state and duopoly system of government. Since the 2008 presidential election, there has been an expected decline in the number of registered Democrats, Republicans and (to a lesser extent) independents, but also an unexpected rise in third party affiliation. Ballot Access News and IPR relay news of a report by Michael McDonald at Pollster, which analyzes current voter registration data and finds that:

Trends in party voter registration since the 2008 presidential election suggest that a small, but perhaps meaningful, number of registered voters are abandoning the major political parties in favor of minor political parties or are forswearing any party affiliation . . .

these trends are consistent with the notion that some American voters are willing to express their frustration with the major parties by registering with a minor political party or affiliating with no party. Indeed, the increase in unaffiliated registrations is a long-term phenomenon observed since the 1970s . . .

as discussed in Paul Herrnson and John C. Green's edited volume Multiparty Politics in America, people who identify with minor political parties tend to be more sophisticated than those who are unaffiliated with any political party. These people tend vote and volunteer for campaigns more often than the general public. Their absence from the major political parties may adversely affect major candidate campaigns, particularly where a minor party candidate is on the ballot.

Read the whole thing for caveats, graphs and other tidbits.