Pew poll: Independent voters are on the rise

Bad news for both of the major U.S. political parties: Pew Research Center reports that thirty-nine percent of voters now identify themselves as independent: a dramatically sharp increase. Thirty-three percent preferred to be identified as "Democrat" and twenty-two percent wished to be known as "Republican".

So yesterday morning I wrote that politics has become a dreary bore to this blogger. And I can't help but think that this poll by Pew reflects that a lot of Americans share that sentiment also. The Democrats and Republicans are each bleeding away voters... and it's not likely that either of the parties will substantially gain them back in the foreseeable future.

Oh heck, let's call it for what it really is: the Republicans and Democrats are fast becoming marginalized.

Now, I have to wonder how long will it be before the mainstream press finally starts to get a clue. Will it keep portraying the Democrat and Republican parties as "the status quo" even as both parties drive themselves to the fringe of the people's interests? Or will outfits such as Fox News, CNN and the like finally stop "playing it safe" and start doing some semblance of real journalism before getting possibly relegated to the pile of increasing irrelevance like their newspaper brethren?

Hey, it just makes small-time bloggers like me look all the more awesome. "I was unaffiliated when unaffiliated wasn't cool" :-P