I blame the schools. A lot of Independents are trying to live in a space that does not exist between the socialists and communists on the left and Nazis and fascists on the right. The schools have been telling us that this is how the left and the right are.
The problem is that the scale we were all taught about in school is only looking at the extreme left. Yes, fascism and Nazism are to the right of the socialism and communism but only by a very thin hair. The extreme right blows right past the fascists and the Nazis, leaving them on the far left. Those forms of government are all based on Marxism. Socialism predates Marx but the rest don't. They are all authoritarian dictatorships.
The true far right is anarchy, no government at all. Socialism, communism, Nazism and fascism about 5,000 miles away from anarchy. The founding fathers gave us a nation that was about 20 miles to the left of anarchy. As the government has grown bigger and more corrupt it keeps moving further down the road to the left. Both parties are racing each other down that road to the left.
Independents think that by standing between socialists and communists on the left and fascists and Nazis on the right they are just right. So they adopt policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans thinking they are centrists. Nope. They are all driving down that road to authoritarianism. The Democrats are in the lead, the Independents are in second place and the Republicans are in third place because of a small handful of Republicans keep stomping on the brakes whenever they get a chance. Democrats are near the end of the road and can see the authoritarians in sight and they are giddy with joy. The Independents haven't reached the point where they can see the end and are blindly driving down the road with the peddle to the metal. A minority of Republicans know where this road goes and they want to go back to where freedom exists but far too many have decided they need to be with the Democrats.