Public  disgust with Democrat-Republican party government is at an all-time  high in the wake of the debt ceiling debacle. As more Americans identify  themselves as Independents, will they walk the walk when it comes time  to cast their ballots next year?

Americans  have long held a low opinion of Congress.  “Suppose you were an  idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself,”  wrote Mark Twain once upon a time.  If recent polling is any indication,  it appears that more and more Americans are coming to see the truth of  Twain’s quip.  A new survey from CNN finds that 70% of respondents do  not believe most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected, and, more  astoundingly, only 41% believe their own representative is worthy of  re-election.  The numbers came as a surprise to Keating Holland, CNN’s  Polling Director.

"That  41 percent, in the polling world, is an amazing figure. Throughout the  past two decades, in good times and bad, Americans have always liked  their own member of Congress despite abysmal ratings for Congress in  general," said Holland to CNN.   "Now anti-incumbent sentiment is so strong that most Americans are no  longer willing to give their own representative the benefit of the  doubt.  If that holds up, it could be an early warning of an electorate  that is angrier than any time in living memory,” he continued.

Discontent  is most high among Independent voters.  75% of Independents told the  pollster that most members of Congress do not deserve re-election,  compared with 74% of Republicans and 60% of Democrats who said the same. Independents  held similarly negative views of their own Congressional  representatives.  57% of Independents said their representative in the  US House does not deserve re-election.  50% of Republicans and just 36%  of Democrats said the same.

A separate poll by Rasmussen bolsters the numbers reported by CNN.  The Rasmussen survey found that  only 17% of likely voters believe the federal government has the consent  of the governed, an all-time low.  Just 8% of respondents said they  believe the average member of Congress listens to constituents over  party leaders, while 84% stated that our Congressional representatives  listen more to their party leaders than the voters they are elected to  represent.

This  raises an obvious question.  If a large majority of Americans believe  Democrats and Republicans put their party before the people, and indeed,  before the country itself, why do so many Americans continue voting for  or otherwise supporting Republicans and Democrats?  In response, one  might answer rather simply that they don’t.  In the 2008 presidential  election, which saw the highest levels of voter turnout in over forty  years, fewer than 57% of eligible voters cast a ballot.  There were more  Americans who opted not to vote than there were who voted for Obama.   In the highly charged midterm elections of 2010, fewer than 38% of  eligible voters bothered to show up at the polls.

What  is an Independent voter to do?  If you do not or cannot support the  Democrats or Republicans, which appears to be the case for an increasing  number of Americans, but there are only Democrats and Republicans on  the ballot, when there is a choice at all, why even bother voting?

Consider  the situation in Virginia, which holds its state elections in  odd-numbered years.  There are 100 members in the State House and 40 in  the State Senate.  This year, 62 seats in the House as well as 15 seats  in the Senate are going uncontested, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch.   There is literally no choice in these elections.  They have been  reduced to nothing more than a formality.  Fortunately for some, there  are a handful of Independent candidates for the State House (seven) and  Senate (four), but that likely does not provide much comfort to the  majority of Virginians who will have no choice at all when it comes to  choosing their representative for the State House.

If  Independents desire adequate representation in government, as opposed  to the automatic reproduction of the two-party political status quo,  they are going to have to demand it by supporting alternatives to the  Republicans and Democrats. 2012 is right around the corner.