America is the land of freedom and choice. As part of our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, “live and let live” has been a guiding national principle throughout our history. Americans may bicker and fight, but we get along just fine when everyone agrees to stay out of everyone else’s personal business and to respect people’s different viewpoints and lifestyles.
Our constitutional system, based on individual freedom and pluralism, has served us well for centuries. Americans in earlier generations sacrificed tremendously to uphold and extend these values to everyone so that those of us today might enjoy relative peace, prosperity, and a wealth of opportunities that weren’t available in their day.
We shouldn’t squander this inheritance.
Fortunately, despite the worst efforts of our current political leaders, Americans are still free to be who they want, to believe and say what they want, and to pursue their interests in whatever manner they see fit. No one tells Americans what to do; they choose for themselves based on their own opinions.
People from all over the globe seek to come to America to be a part of one of the world’s most individualistic and free societies. Our capitalist system supports every niche lifestyle, belief structure, and consumer demand one can imagine. Modern technology and media platforms support millions of individual voices and organic communities of people focused on everything from religion, science, history, and ideas to medicine, wellness, self-help, and DIY to popular culture, sports, gaming, food, and travel.
America offers extraordinary freedom for people to choose the course of their own lives. We offer people an abundance of economic, social, and religious possibilities unavailable to those living in many other countries.
Yet despite all this personal freedom in our individual lives, when it comes to politics, our choices are artificially constrained by an electoral system that allows almost no room for alternatives. In most elections, Americans are effectively presented with just two viable political parties.
You get Democrats or Republicans. Chicken or beef. Peas or carrots. Vanilla or chocolate. If you don’t like the choices, don’t eat.
It wasn’t always this way. The Founding Fathers who set up the American system mostly distrusted political parties, viewing them as factional forces that undermined republican virtue, self-governance, and a patriotic commitment to the national interest. Likewise, many of the earliest political parties fell apart over major issues or shifts in regional coalitions.
But pretty much since the middle of the nineteenth century, we’ve been stuck with Democrats and Republicans as the two largest parties with occasional third-party outbursts (most famously in the election of 1912, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson won an Electoral College landslide with only 42 percent of the vote, Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party out-polled his old Republican Party 27 percent to 23 percent, and Eugene Debs’s Socialists got 6 percent of the national vote).
The two parties have served the country well at times, in their respective ways, and could continue to do so if they reformed themselves to better reflect the breadth of public opinion, rather than cater disproportionately to partisan extremes. Given the dynamics of contemporary politics, this seems increasingly unlikely as Democrats and Republicans retreat into ideological trench warfare, executive overreach, and a constant cycle of partisan retribution and abuse of power as government control shifts back and forth.
Instead of working to build a stronger economy with abundant growth and good-paying jobs, declining federal debts, and rising prosperity for most people, Democrats and Republicans spend billions on political advertising, much of it devoted to attacking one another every two years, shifting the blame from their own partisan stupor to the other side’s perfidy.
Politics as deflection, not action in the national interest.
The one thing both parties excel at more than anything else is self-preservation. They use control over election laws and administration to protect their own interests, restrict ballot access, and make it harder for outside candidates and parties to gain a foothold. Their financial and organizational advantages discourage real competition and close off avenues for reform.
Given the growing dissatisfaction with both major parties, it’s striking how resilient the two-party system remains. An increasing number of Americans today despise both parties, and their discontent is growing. People feel both parties have failed to address their most significant concerns on inflation, jobs, growth, health care, and numerous other issues. More Americans identify as political independents than they do as either Democrats or Republicans.
Absent any real movement on electoral or other political reforms, primarily due to the intransigence and unchallenged control of the two parties over state and federal election law, independent Americans will have to take matters into their own hands.
Here are three interrelated paths for the budding free agent to consider:
Personal independence. Be yourself—not a blind partisan. If you’re economically populist and socially conservative and don’t see this represented in the two-party system, be yourself and support independent candidates who back a “pro-worker, pro-family, pro-America” agenda. Alternatively, if you really care about a specific economic or social issue and don’t feel that either Democrats or Republicans equally care about the issue, then be yourself and support those who do back the issue regardless of their party label.
Some of these candidates may be Republican, some Democratic, and others may be independent. Make them work for your vote.
Don’t be a partisan and unquestionably accept every position and argument on one side and reject those on the other. Don’t write off outsiders without a party label. The beauty of political independence is that you no longer need to toe anyone’s line or feel any pressure to conform to a specific party platform or candidate.
Embrace the liberation from partisan insanity.
Electoral independence. Declare yourself independent and support independent candidates, if you desire. The two-party system certainly makes it hard for outsiders to get on the ballot, raise their profile, secure funds for campaigning, and get a hearing as Democrats and Republicans swamp voters with their propaganda. And obviously many states won’t allow unaffiliated voters to participate in primary elections. But it’s not impossible to run as an independent or to support independent politics, particularly at the state and local levels, where independence is more likely to thrive.
There are several viable independents running in 2026, some pledging not to caucus with either party, creating the possibility of a truly independent bloc emerging in Congress over the next few election cycles. So, if you wish, declare yourself independent (or as a registered “unaffiliated” voter in your state) and support those who do the same by offering them your vote if you agree with their agenda and platform.
There are ways to be rational as an independent within the confines of the two-party system as well. If there’s an important primary coming up that you care about but can’t participate in as an unaffiliated voter—like the 2028 presidential nominating contests—switch your party registration temporarily to one side or the other and then switch back (check your state rules first). Or, if third-party or independent voting feels like a waste of time in the next elections, vote strategically based on the issues or candidates that you care most about and then go back to doing independent work.
Institutional reform. Support electoral reforms and truly independent legislative caucuses. Meaningful and lasting change to the two-party system will require voters to demand electoral reforms, such as nonpartisan primaries or proportional representation for legislatures. Since the two major parties dominate the states and Congress, these reforms will require one or both parties agreeing to change the laws and respect voters’ desires for more choice—a tall order for sure.
Absent these changes, voters can back a range of heterodox independents—some populist or left, some centrist, some center-right or conservative—who could form a core swing group in state legislatures and Congress.
For example, the margins are so tight now between the two parties in the House that a small cohort of independents could theoretically determine who controls the chamber, how the rules are structured, what priorities get considered, and what legislation gets passed. With dozens of these independents across both chambers, politics would be transformed. This is the goal of Joe Manchin’s new movement, the Independent Leadership Council, and candidates such as Seth Bodnar, who is pursuing a similar approach in Montana.
Although difficult to pull off given two-party dominance, this could happen without any electoral reforms if more Americans decided to vote for and elect truly independent representatives.
Americans cherish their freedom to live how they want and believe what they want. It’s time to demand the same freedom when it comes to our political choices. Citizens shouldn’t have to accept two increasingly dysfunctional parties as the only viable options in a country based on individual liberty and pluralism.
America needs more independents and more political parties.
The next era of politics should offer voters something better: the freedom to choose representatives who reflect their own values and policy priorities, without being forced to choose between two failing partisan teams.
This new era of political liberty can’t come soon enough.
Editor’s note: This is a revised version of an article originally published in The Liberal Patriot last year.
Yes! Very erudite message. Writing as a proud independent from the The Old North State.
The two parties have set themselves up to be invincible. It will take more than just frustrated voters to take down the two parties.