This Gallup poll from a few weeks ago almost slipped past without being noticed.



Last year, 42% of Americans, on average, identified as political independents, erasing the decline to 39% seen in the 2016 presidential election year. Independent identification is just one percentage point below the high of 43% in 2014. Twenty-nine percent of Americans identify themselves as Democrats and 27% as Republicans.



All it takes is a quick glance at the chart to see where all these independents are coming from since 2009 (hint: they aren't former Republicans).



The dip in independent identification in 2016 and recovery in 2017 is a typical pattern for a presidential election year and the year after...However, the three-point increase in the proportion of independents in 2017 is larger than what Gallup typically has seen in the year after a presidential election.

...With a nearly record-high proportion of Americans identifying as independents in 2017, it follows that identification with the two major parties is near the historical low for each. In fact, the 29% of Americans who identify as Democrats ties 2015 as the lowest in Gallup's trend for that party. Republican identification (27%) is two points above its low of 25% in 2013.

More Americans typically identify as Democrats than as Republicans, but Democrats' two-point advantage in 2017 is on the lower end of Gallup's annual trend.

That poll comes two months after this CNN poll.



Favorable views of the Democratic Party have dropped to their lowest mark in more than a quarter century of polling, according to new numbers from a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Only 37% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Democrats, down from 44% in March of this year. A majority, 54%, have an unfavorable view, matching their highest mark in polls from CNN and SSRS, CNN/ORC and CNN/USA Today/Gallup stretching back to 1992.

Essentially, 2017 was a car wreck for the Democrats. But they have still managed to maintain their corporate donors, and that's what counts it seems.

Maybe if Dems just keep lecturing us about bipartisanship, being pragmatic, and how we can't have Medicare For All until racism and sexism is eliminated from the Earth, then all those independents will realize what a mistake they made.

