6.3 What does the public think?  (Page 4/18)

The United States is traditionally a two-party system. Only Democrats and Republicans regularly win the presidency and, with few exceptions, seats in Congress. The majority of voters cast ballots only for Republicans and Democrats, even when third parties are represented on the ballot. Yet, citizens say they are frustrated with the current party system. Only 32 percent identify themselves as Democrats and only 23 percent as Republicans. Democratic membership has stayed relatively the same, but the Republican Party has lost about 6 percent of its membership over the last ten years, whereas the number of self-identified independents has grown from 30 percent in 2004 to 39 percent in 2014.

Some of these changes in party allegiance may be due to generational and cultural shifts. Millennials and generation Xers are more likely to support the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. In recent polling, 51 percent of millennials and 49 percent of generation Xers stated they did, whereas only 35 percent and 38 percent, respectively, supported the Republican Party. Baby boomers (currently aged 50–68) are slightly less likely than the other groups to support the Democratic Party; only 47 percent reported doing so. The silent generation (born in the 1920s to early 1940s) is the only cohort whose members state they support the Republican Party as a majority.

Another shift in politics may be coming from the increasing number of multiracial citizens with strong cultural roots. Almost 7 percent of the population now identifies as biracial or multiracial, and that percentage is likely to grow. The number of citizens identifying as both African American and white doubled between 2000 and 2010, whereas the number of citizens identifying as both Asian American and white grew by 87 percent. The Pew study found that only 37 percent of multiracial adults favored the Republican Party, while 57 percent favored the Democratic Party.