In an NBC/WSJ poll earlier this year, only 1 in 10 adults agreed that the two-party system in this country was working fairly well.
This means that both parties are leaving a lot to be desired, according to voters, and many are coming to see the radical need for an alternative. In fact, 38% of respondents said the country needs a third party, the highest number who have said so since this poll began tracking the question in 1995.
And a third party that makes it its raison d'etre to represent the rest of the electorate might get a good look by voters in this environment.
Contributing to the need for an alternative party is the feeling that politics is dividing us up -- and leaving a lot of us out. And the choices we're usually left with, Republican or Democrat, aren't good enough.
The immigration disconnect
Just take this example from one of the early Democratic primary debates in June, when candidates were asked whether they supported decriminalizing our borders --that is, repealing Section 1325 of Title 8 of the US Code, which makes crossing the border without official inspection a misdemeanor offense.
Nine of 10 hands shot up.
As of an August tally by Politico, 14 Democratic candidates, some of whom are no longer in the running, had supported decriminalizing the border. For many progressive voters, the idea likely seemed necessary. After all, President Donald Trump was using the statute to detain and separate asylum-seeking families at the border.
Dem Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tweeted: "Border policy: As @JulianCastro mentioned in the #DemDebate, it's time to repeal Section 1325 & 1326, the statutes this admin is using to mindlessly throw people in cages. We have to take these proceedings out of criminal code and into civil code. Torture accomplishes nothing."
What made the moment astonishing for anyone remotely in touch with voters -- or who had read recent polls -- was that this idea was far outside the mainstream. What many saw as simply ending the mechanism to determine whether immigration was legal or illegal is not popular.
According to an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll among registered voters conducted shortly after that debate, decriminalizing the border enjoyed a paltry 27% of support.
But this was a Democratic primary -- the candidates were at least speaking to their base, right?
No. Only 45% of Democrats thought decriminalizing the border a good idea, versus 47% who didn't. When broken down even further, only 34% of moderate Democrats supported it, while 58% did not. And those coveted independent voters? Only 24% of them were on board.
Here was a policy proposal supported wholly by at least 14 Democratic candidates for president, and in some part by others, that had been resoundingly rejected by the majority of America, and also the majority of their own voters.
What was going on here?
Source: CNN
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