LEE CARTER: 45% of Americans calling themselves 'independent' aren't independent at all – they're just angry

Nearly half of all Americans identify themselves as independents, but they're not moderate — they're angry because they feel the broken system doesn't care about them.

This isn't about ideology. This is rage dressed up as a polling category. Seventy-three percent of Americans say they're dissatisfied with the political system itself. That's not frustration. That's people withdrawing consent. That's a legitimacy crisis. Now here's the cutting part: the entire political establishment from both parties is equally vulnerable. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have figured out that the 45% have tasted something different.  Lee Hartley Carter is president of Maslansky + Partners, a language strategist, researcher and author of "Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter" (TarcherPerigee, September 3, 2019). Follow her on X on @lh_carter.

This isn't about ideology. This is rage dressed up as a polling category.

And it's remaking American politics in real time.