A whole lot of self-described independents aren't really independent. I do think "choose your news" television is a large part of the problem, maybe the biggest cause. And social media has made it even worse.

In better days when television news was largely down the middle reporting, you could have a Democratic landslide and then only 8 years later a Republican landslide, with a very close election in between. That's a good thing, in my opinion. Today that would be downright impossible.