Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Interesting Finding on Third Party Support

It’s been something of a slow news day today for electoral politics, but we did happen to catch an interesting figure in the latest report from the Pew Research Center.

Apparently, despite all the new stories about independents and third party candidates running for office, support for them is - on the whole - decreasing.

From the report:

Despite record dissatisfaction with Congress and extremely low ratings for both the Democratic and Republican Parties, there is no shift in public demand for alternatives to the two parties. Just over half (52%) of Americans say the U.S. should have a third major political party in addition to the Democrats and Republicans, while four-in-ten (40%) disagree. This is little changed from last year, when 56% favored a third party and 38% opposed the idea.

Support for a third party continues to be widespread among independents. As was the case last year, 70% of independents say we should have a third major political party. Just 44% of both Republicans and Democrats agree. There is also a consistent difference between younger and older Americans. In the current poll, 63% of Americans under age 30 support the idea of a third political party, compared with just 37% of those ages 65 and older.

In fact, it appears that the third party has been losing support since the days of Ross Perot.

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