Whether you identify as a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, we have one thing in common:

My story is no different from those of millions of Americans struggling to find a political party that represents them. Although we may have started in different places politically and philosophically, and traveled a different road to get to where we are, many of us now have a common problem: no major party consistently represents our beliefs and aspirations for our country.

Most of us have little control over where we start our political journey. I happen to have started mine as a small-government conservative, believing in the power of markets and free trade to provide the greatest good for the greatest number. As a result, I felt most at home with the Republican Party. Over time, however, the cost of voting Republican became too high for me to bear.

From the outset, the price of being a Republican meant overlooking the party’s allegiance to traditional marriage and the Second Amendment while our children were massacred in their schools and many of those we love found happiness in non-traditional relationships.

Then a strange thing happened.

The small-government party, from Reagan to Bush to Trump, presided over some of the largest increases in unfunded government spending in our history. Perhaps even worse, the “free-market party” abandoned their free trade principles and started a global trade war. All the while, they have closed their eyes to the threat of climate change and engaged in demagoguery and the creation of enemies as a political strategy.

So, you may be wondering, why am I not at home with the Democratic Party?

The most immediate answer is that while the Republicans have chosen immigrants, trade partners and multilateralism as a basis for their demagoguery, many Democrats have chosen the “one percenters,” the “millionaires and billionaires,” drug companies, insurance companies, and Wall Street for theirs. After all, is there any real difference between Trumpians chanting “lock her up” and some in the Democratic leadership insisting that bankers be locked up? Both involve the creation of enemies for political purposes, and although none of these targets is beyond reproach, none deserves this targeting without due process. Democratic demagoguery is no more tolerable than Republican demagoguery. It is still demagoguery.

Then, there is a long list of issues both sides pay lip service to but neither seriously addresses. Why can’t we compromise to improve our schools? Why don’t we have the courage to address the coming financial challenge of Medicare and Medicaid? Why are both parties so loyal to the Second Amendment that we can’t end the epidemic of gun violence? Why are both sides willing to mortgage our children in order to fund an antiquated defense policy? And why can’t either party discuss the danger of the growing income and wealth inequality in America, in rational, informed terms?

Above all, no party seems willing to engage in fact-based, rational discussion and compromise. Here, guilt is universal, and responsibility for the growing divide and paralysis in Congress is owned by both sides.

This is why I became disenfranchised by both parties.