For a long time, pollsters, political pundits, candidates, and the media have ignored the rise of independent voters. They have called independents “closet partisans” or “leaners,” and they justify this by how the media twists the narrative.

Gallup has consistently found that around 4-in-10 Americans self-identify as independent. However, instead of asking why these voters choose not to identify with a political party, pollsters then ask, “Well, which of the two major parties do you lean more toward?”

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished in its entirety on IVN with permission from the publisher.

President Biden gave Ukraine top billing and said fighting inflation is the “top priority” during his State of the Union address Tuesday. But he also spoke at length about building a unity agenda and — very briefly — called for passage of election reform legislation.

Anyone who has followed the pro-voter, pro-democracy reform space for even a small period of time knows America’s political processes are flawed. It may not even come as a surprise to find out that the US is not even considered close to being the world’s role model in democracy.