Editorial: Poll results should wake up major parties

10/11/2007

Fewer Minnesotans identify with Democrats, Republicans.


Star Tribune Editorial
Published: October 10, 2007


A POX ON BOTH PARTIES

"Honestly, I've had it with both of them. I used to be a Democrat, but they haven't got it right any more than the Republicans have.''

The independent political streak remains strong in Minnesota. In fact, it's gaining strength.

A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll found that 38 percent of Minnesota adults surveyed last month described themselves as independents, compared with 29 percent who said they're Democrats and 24 percent who identified themselves as Republicans. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

When the Minnesota Poll asked the same question in 2005, 31 percent of respondents said they were independent, with 29 percent labeling themselves as Republicans and 32 percent as Democrats.

At first blush, the new numbers might seem surprising. Kathryn Pearson, a University of Minnesota political scientist who specializes in public opinion, called the results "incredible" in light of the polarized times in which we live.

But no one should be shocked that a lower percentage of Minnesotans identify with the major parties. Pearson captured the significance of those results with this explanation: "It's really striking that the public's disaffected with the Republicans and the Democrats."

Minnesota was in a similar position in 1998, when frustration with the major parties helped elect Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Jesse Ventura.

There are myriad reasons for the trend. Some would say the major parties have become echo chambers, with the religious right and the war coloring the Republican message and tax-and-spenders and labor unions shaping party image for the Democrats. Others are tired of the pattern of political bomb-throwing between the parties, which does nothing to solve the complex problems facing the state and country.

Minnesota has a strong tradition of truly bipartisan cooperation that's paid off for the state and its residents. Welfare reform under Govs. Rudy Perpich and Arne Carlson, and the health care overhaul in the early 1990s, show what government can do when compromise is seen not as a dirty word but as a noble, constructive part of the decisionmaking process.

The chairmen of the two major parties in Minnesota downplayed the significance of the poll results this week, focusing instead on the how these disaffected respondents might lean in upcoming elections. That's certainly one way to approach the numbers.

A smarter strategy would be for both parties to focus on communicating to the voters that they are working on issues those voters care about.

And they can listen more closely to those alienated Minnesotans who expect more from the two parties -- in St. Paul and Washington -- than harshly partisan politics that too often leads to gridlock.