They "consider themselves independent", but they are not independent. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/11/independents-outnumber-demo

They "consider themselves independent", but they are not independent. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/11/independents-outnumber-democrats-and-republicans-but-theyre-not-very-independent/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/11/in... https://www.thenation.com/article/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-independent-voters/ https://www.thenation.com/article/what-everyone-gets-wrong-a... https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-polling-turnout-early-voting-data-213897 https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump... http://republic3-0.com/myth-independent-voter-stefan-hankin/ http://republic3-0.com/myth-independent-voter-stefan-hankin/ > the fact that we have switched between democrat and republican presidents regularly is proof that enough people change their vote Not really. Only half the eligible voters actually vote in presidential elections. Different voters come out to vote at different times in different states for different reasons, and some of those may switch their vote, but the majority vote along party lines as noted in the above articles. The presidential elections are swung by having more ideologically extreme past presidents. Two terms of Clinton led to two terms of Bush led to two terms of Obama leads into two terms of Trump, and then we'll have two terms of Bernie or something equally extreme, like a transgender asexual black mexican jew. (And I just looked it up - there is a transgender queer black mexican rabbi in Chicago, but unfortunately you can't get elected in this country without being a proud Christian)