From an article posted on the LNCC.org website:

Nick Gillespie, writing in Reason magazine, finds the Democrat/Republican-skeptic vote has grown so large it will be the key demographic that decides 2012 elections:

According to Gallup and based on 20,000 interviews from 20 polls taken throughout 2011, ‘a record-high 40 percent of Americans identify as Independents.’ To put that in perspective, consider that self-identified Democrats roll in at a historic low of 31 percent while just 27 percent of us are willing to admit being Republicans…

…In its summary of 2011 attitudes toward government and political parties, Gallup concluded that the surge in independents stems from the ‘sluggish economy, record levels of distrust in government, and unfavorable views of both parties.’ Indeed, a ‘historic’ 81 percent of Americans overall are ‘dissatisfied with the way the nation is being governed’ and 53 percent of us have negative views of the Republican Party and 55 percent of us have negative views of the Democratic Party.