Thursday, December 15th, 2022

Jackie Salit and Thom Reilly are co-directors of the Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at Arizona State University and co-authors of The Independent Voter. Independents are making a statement about the culture, the practice, and the destructiveness of the current political culture. You have almost half the country identifying themselves as independents, but you have a system that is completely embedded with partisan bias.

Jackie and Thom break down the independent voting profile and why the two main parties need to sit up and listen to them. The independent movement of today is a direct challenge to the parties, party power, and the party system. The issue for America and for American democracy is having the fairest, most inclusive, most vibrant democratic process, as opposed to engineering a system to produce a certain outcome.