Democrats and Republicans have reached an all-time low in public opinion, according to a Gallup survey.

The poll, taken in the midst of the government shutdown, showed that only 26 percent of Americans believe that the Democratic and Republican parties are doing an adequate job of representing the American people, and 60 percent of Americans consented that there was a need for a third major political party. This is the poll’s highest recorded percentage in 10 years.

“My personal opinion … is that I wish it were easier for third parties to compete,” said Bill Karr, president of the Young Americans for Liberty organization and graduate student. “But the laws are such that it’s very difficult right now to gain traction with a third party.”

Young Americans for Liberty is a large and fast-growing libertarian group that grew out of Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign. It has nearly 500 chapters on college campuses across the nation. Historically, the libertarian movement has often supported republicans, though it is not affiliated with a particular political party.

“I do find that it’s true that Democrats and Republicans don’t really represent the people in general. I think the country is moving toward a more libertarian attitude,” Karr said. “We take, generally speaking, a more liberal stance on social issues and a more conservative stance on economic issues.”

Karr even said that the attendance of Young Americans for Liberty meetings exceeds meeting attendance for College Republicans at UIUC.

“I think that goes to show that people really care about the ideas that we’re fighting for, whereas students don’t really care about getting involved with college Democrats and College Republicans even if they identify as being in one of those parties,” Karr said.

However, those students affiliated with College Republicans and Illini Democrats remain confident in their parties and attribute the survey’s low ratings to the party conflict.

“I think people are very frustrated at the gridlock that the two major political parties are producing, and that’s why there’s an appetite for something new or different to kind of move things forward,” said Owen Marsden, president of Illini Democrats and graduate student.

Marsden pointed out that countries with three or four major political parties often have more gridlock, not less.

“I don’t think it’s the number of political parties that are causing the gridlock,” Marsden said. “I think it’s the polarization that has sort of gripped us.”

President of the College Republicans Christiaan Burner, junior in Business, also attributed low public opinion to stagnation in Congress.

“I think most of the dislike is not for what they’re doing, but more the dislike for the gridlock,” Burner said.

Days before the third-party poll was released, another Gallup poll shows that the percentage of people who see the Republican Party as favorable has fallen to 28 percent since the shutdown, a record low. Democratic Party ratings dropped as well to 43 percent, down four percentage points since September.

To combat the low public opinion on a local level, Burner plans to focus more on the issues rather than party lines.

“Rather than promoting the politicians, I really want to promote the principles of where we stand on these issues,” Burner said.

He said changing the direction of the country is not about trying to find a perfect politician.

“The way we should change the direction of this country is by having an educated, high-information electorate.”

Still, others hold out that a third major political party would best represent the American people. Among them is Champaign resident Jesse Phillippe, who is a member of the International Socialist Organization, which has 89 chapters across the United States.

“We have supported third party candidates, usually from other groups, in the past — particularly the Green Party,” Phillippe said.

Nick Dadufalza, a freshman in Engineering, is also part of the International Socialist Organization and explains that the organization supports neither the Democratic nor Republican parties, as they both are seen as capitalist institutions.

“The socialist party is a very left-wing organization, so automatically we are very anti-republican,” Dadufalza said. “The Democratic Party has propagated that they are the workers’ party, but the reason why we don’t believe that is that their campaign funds and how they operate are controlled by big corporations. That doesn’t represent the workers or the people.”

Though Ben Rosenberg, sophomore in LAS, believes more political parties are a good idea, he admits that with the current party system in place, a third major party is unlikely to happen.

“I think politicians tend to forget that they also represent an entire country when they’re making legislative decisions, and not just the people that vote for (them) in (their) district.”

Zila can be reached at [email protected].