Nick Troiano

Opinion contributor

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska drew national headlines last weekend after candidly replying to a tweet from a newly independent voter asking whether he, too, would consider leaving his party.

“Yep — regularly consider it,” he said.

This line of thinking isn’t new for the senator.

In May 2016, he posted on Facebook: “Neither political party works. They bicker like children about tiny things. ... These two national political parties are enough of a mess that I believe they will come apart. ... When people’s needs aren’t being met, they ultimately find other solutions.”

In March 2017, he tweeted that he considers himself to be “an independent conservative who caucuses with Republicans.”

On Sunday, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper: “The main thing that the Democrats are for is being anti-Republican and anti-Trump, and the main thing Republicans are for is being anti-Democrat and anti-CNN. And neither of these things are really worth getting out of bed in the morning for.”

What are you going to do about it, Mr. Sasse?

Sasse is giving voice to the 43% and growing share of Americans who do not identify with either political party. What unites this largest and fastest growing segment of the electorate is not a commitment to an ideology, but fidelity to a system of governance that is about putting country over party. They are looking for leadership.

Now, senator, what are you going to do about it?

Others have spoken out against the dysfunction and divisiveness of today’s two-party system, but they were either defeated in primaries, decided to retire, or died.

There’s another option: Stop trying to save the GOP; start trying to save your country. Don’t leave the Senate; leave your party. Quit complaining about today’s politics; reimagine it entirely.

Far from committing political suicide, the next U.S. senator to leave his or her party could become the most influential leader in Washington. Imagine a U.S. Senate divided 47 Democrats, 50 Republicans and three independents — Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Angus King of Maine and a new convert like Sasse.

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Who would be the majority leader? How would committees be assigned? What issues would be on the agenda? By controlling the balance of power, a coalition of independent senators could decide.

Moreover, three independents could quickly become four, five or six. Start with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who lost her primary in 2010 and was effectively elected as an independent by write-in votes. Add Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, who are deserted on islands of their own within their parties. While Sanders and Sasse sit on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, a caucus of mostly moderate independents would nevertheless serve to radically re-center the Senate.

This scenario is not entirely without precedent.

When the late Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent in 2001, he remarked: “I feel as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

Back then, the Senate was divided 50-50, and Jeffords’ decision single-handedly changed the majority leader. He became chairman of a committee and some of his policy objectives, such as funding for special education, were prioritized. He retired at the end of his term.

When Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut lost the Democratic primary in 2006, he ran in the general election as an independent. He won, and he continued to caucus with his former party.

Independents can salvage our system

It’s time for the patriots and public servants of the U.S. Senate to accept the reality that both political parties are trapped in a doom loop of reinforcing polarization and hyperpartisanship, accelerated by niche media, electoral rule-rigging and special interest money. The parties will not and cannot reform themselves. The only way to break the destructive cycle of our deteriorating politics is to change the political paradigm altogether.

A caucus of independents who deny both political parties control in Washington will gain enormous leverage to protect our democratic norms and values, prevent party line votes on major pieces of legislation, and promote common ground solutions to the nation’s problems.

The next U.S. senator who becomes an independent, whether Sasse or someone else, would be a catalyst to break the political duopoly’s corrosive control over our governing institutions and give that power back to the people. Now that’s worth getting up in the morning for.

Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, left the GOP in 2013 and ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 as an independent. Follow him on Twitter: @NickTroiano