According to Gallup Polls done on December 4th, 2017, 25 percent of the American populace are registered as Republicans, 27 percent as Democrats, 2 percent as other parties (such as Liberetarian, etc.) and a whopping 46 percent are registered as Independent. That statistic alone tells you that Americans aren't being properly represented by our government. Ten years ago the same Gallup Poll was done on December 6th, 2007 with 30 percent Republican, 32 percent Democrat and 36 percent being Independent. Politicians are losing the support of the American people. A good example of this was the most recent Presidential election. Political outsider Donald Trump won the nomination for the Republican Party and Democratic Maverick Bernie Sanders nearly won the Democratic nomination (and possibly did, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and many others have stated publicly that the Democratic nomination was rigged in Hillary Clinton's favor which further adds to the public discontentment). But even examining those two candidates, Trump and Sanders, shows the problem of political disconnect with the American public as one candidate is on the extreme right and the other is on the extreme left.
It's time for a centrist party that supports both Unions and Businesses without leaning one way or another. As a Union member, I want my Company to prosper, but not at my expense. The more my company prospers, the more I can prosper as well. Republicans side solely with Companies and Democrats side with Unions while damaging the Business landscape with over regulation. We need a party that doesn't take sides and considers strongly all viewpoints. The United Kingdom has the Labor Party and we need to build our own version of the Labor Party here in the United States. One based upon the values and economics that we as middle class Union members hold dear. I'm not sure how to make that happen, but there are some theories on how to start. Here is one example from Medium.com:
https://medium.com/@wwnorton/america-needs-a-centrist-party-now-more-tha...
According to the Pew Research center, "public opinion remains more divided along partisan lines than along the lines of race, religion, age, gender and educational background". But that leaves out the majority of Americans who are caught in the middle without anyone representing their interests. The current partisan political system essentially eliminates most of the voting public who don't indentify with either the extreme right or extreme left.
The American people need to be represented in our government or our whole system is a failure. We need proper representation so that the majority has it's voice heard. Are America's Unions the answer? Is it time for the Unions to start a Labor based political party that doesn't subscribe to overwhelmingly socialist ideals as past Labor related political parties have? I think it is. Now how do we get started? That's where the trouble truly begins.
