Back in 2011, Politico asked its readers to nominate and vote on independent candidates ahead of the upcoming presidential election. The “Politico Primary,” as it was called, was more of a low-stakes exercise for political junkies than a serious endeavor — “part parlor game, part reporting assignment,” as then executive editor Jim VandeHei and chief White House correspondent Mike Allen put it. The results were nevertheless revealing given the virtual primary’s supposed premise. “The public has had it with Washington and conventional politics,” VandeHei and Allen began, continuing:

It has lost trust and respect in the conventional governing class. There is mounting evidence voters don’t see President Barack Obama or the current crop of GOP candidates as the clear and easy solution. As Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg argues, it seems likely if not inevitable an atmosphere this toxic and destabilized will produce an independent presidential candidate who could shake the political system.

Though independent presidential candidates rarely enjoy any success, there was definitely something to the general spirit of this statement. Congress, as a rule, is incredibly unpopular. When polled in a 2018 voter survey that asked “In your view, do the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the American people, or do they do such a poor job that a third major party is needed?” some 68 percent of respondents, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, agreed with the second option. However you square it, America’s polarized and incredibly partisan cultural environment — particularly as manifested on politically aligned cable networks and talk shows — is justly loathed and widely recognized as a problem.