When political discussions take place, they are often focused on how Democrats or Republicans, conservatives versus liberals or red in relation to blue look at an issue.  They leave out a component of the electorate which grows in number and importance year after year–the independent or unaffiliated voter.  In fact, if you really analyze the results of the 2024 presidential election, Democrats came out for Kamala Harris at a 95 percent clip while Republicans came out for Donald Trump at a 91 percent figure.  So why did he win?  First 6 million fewer Democrats came out than in the 2020 campaign but, perhaps more importantly, independent voters supported Trump by an eight percent margin.  In an era when the parties have grown more partisan and ideological, those voters, often in the middle, who do not look at issues in those terms, but rather individually, start their voting lives as independents and make it very difficult for pollsters to predict their behaviors. Lura Forcum, president of the Independent Center (independentcenter.org) discusses the role of the independent voter and how they scramble the way we should look at our current day politics.