For many Californians, Democrats and Republicans, it’s a pox on both parties. And they would like to see a new third party created.

There have always been people who were angry with both sides and wanted another major option. But their numbers have increased significantly in recent years.

And as we approach the 2024 presidential election, the question is whether this growing segment of disabled voters will vote at all, or simply reject the fight.

Start with the fact that national polls from virtually every research organization show widespread dissatisfaction with the future choices of the aging President Biden and the oft-indicted and also aging former President Trump.

Polling from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California has found that a third of Californians have an unfavorable impression of both parties, including their own.

And 71% believe the Republican and Democratic parties are doing so poorly that a third major party is needed.

That obviously seems very unlikely. We have a two-party system set up that way by the two parties in power who want to avoid additional competition.

In California we hardly have a second party.

No Republican presidential candidate has carried the state since 1988. That was also the last year a Republican won the U.S. Senate race in California. No Republican has been elected to statewide office since 2006. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives delegation easily outnumber Republicans, 40 to 12, and hold supermajorities in both state legislative houses.

Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1, while independent No Party Preference ranks slightly below Republicans.

But only because Democrats run the state government along with most major cities and have a huge advantage in voter registration

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doesn’t mean their voters are doing cartwheels about the party.

The PPIC poll found that 28% of California Democrats have an unfavorable impression of their party. And 70% believe that a third party is necessary.

Of Republican voters, 32% view their party unfavorably. And 61% want a new party.

Of course, independents have already withdrawn from both parties. They would especially like to see a new party.

Among California adults, 51% have a negative view of the Democratic Party, 76% have a negative view of the Republican Party and 33% are unhappy with both, compared to 20% three years ago.

The grumpy attitude has only gotten worse in recent years. In 2016, only 37% of Californians had an unfavorable impression of the Democratic Party. Just three years ago, far fewer people were negative about the Republican Party: 58%. In 2012, less than half of people thought a third party was necessary. Now it is almost three-quarters.

PPIC researcher Mark Baldassare blames Congress for the growing complaints from most voters. The survey found that 81% of voters disapproved of Congress’ job performance.

And the poll was conducted before weeks of leaderless chaos in the House of Representatives following the ouster of Bakersfield Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker. Republican Party rebels complained that McCarthy compromised with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. In today’s House, that is an unforgivable sin by the Republican Party.

The Republicans ultimately chose a much more conservative speaker, the relatively inexperienced Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

It’s really about what’s happening in Washington, Baldassare says. A large portion of Californians believe Congress is not working.

State legislatures can pass bills voters don’t like, the pollster says, but something will get done. People no longer have to worry about whether the government will run out of money or who will be in charge if Israel is attacked by Hamas.

He adds: There is a growing and large proportion of voters who will decide whether to forego the next election. Or find a third party candidate and throw a wrench into party politics. They want more choices.

Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant and critic of the Republican Party for failing to adapt to California’s growing ethnic diversity and progressive culture, says just because California is so blue doesn’t mean it’s a Democratic state.

Voters simply don’t see the Republican Party as a viable option. They choose between the lesser of two evils. They still see the better choice as bad. Democrats are the less odious option.

It’s not that Californians believe Democrats are doing a great job. They’re just afraid of what the Republicans might do if they’re in power. Republicans are so out of step on cultural issues in California.

Dan Schnur, a former Republican operative who changed his voter registration to independent and teaches political communication at USC and UC Berkeley, uses a football analogy to explain how both parties have become more extreme than California voters.

Most people live between the political 40-meter lines and the parties have retreated to the goal lines, perhaps to the parking lots, Schnur says. If a political party follows the whims of its most ideologically extreme members, it will leave many people behind.

Younger voters in particular, under the age of 35, need a new major party. That could be bad news for the future. Or good news.

The GOP was born from the power of a brave new American savior, Abraham Lincoln. The conservative Whig Party collapsed. God help us if the nation is ever so badly threatened from within again.

But we did have a president and his cronies, including this new Republican House Speaker, who tried to overturn a presidential election three years ago. So few things are absolutely certain.