No Place for an Independent

When you or I show up to hear a politician speak, we can expect to hear them touting either Republican or Democratic ideologies.  This strategy by candidates seams both shortsighted and a bit troubling.  In the article "How Independents Could Sway Primaries in Mass., N.H., and R.I." by Linda Killian, she clearly shows that targeting one party or the other overlooks the countries largest demographic; the independent.  Killian presents the eye opening data that in these three hotly contested states, independents make up over or around half of the voters.  The key for the candidates in these elections will be to tap into this overlooked majority but as Killian states, "there 'isn’t a great deal of enthusiasm' for the candidates.  Nor for politics as usual as it is being practiced by the two parties."  The point being, that the way campaigns are being run is not bringing independent voters to the polls but rather keeping them away.

Killian highlights multiple primaries in these states, meaning that there are two or more candidates of the same party fighting against one another.  In these races it seams idiotic that the candidates would fight tooth and nail over the same group, whither it be republican voters or democrat voters.  If one of these candidates would appeal to the overwhelming number of independents, their win would seem assured.  Unfortunately, that is not the way elections are being run and because of that no candidate is willing to do so.  

In today's political system there is one group that is slowly but surely being disenfranchised; the moderate.  The party system has become increasingly hostile in routing out all moderates, when seeking out a nomination many hopeful candidates find that they are either not right or not left enough.  What is worse, is that many candidates who are accused of being too moderate often bend to the will of the party in order to receive the nomination.  It is no wonder then that the independent is shunned, when a republican can be shunned for not agreeing with the tea party -of which there are only a few true members. 

In my freshman seminar class, when asked to provide a synonym for independent the common answer was either lazy or apathetic.  That in itself says a lot; that subconsciously the association for a word that simply means "not affiliated with a part" is somehow negative.  The rift in our political system is systemic and not easily mended.  the most troubling part is that this rift leaves the majority of our country somewhere stranded in the middle.    Those in the center allow those on the fringes to control the system.If the moderate and the independent are ever to recapture this political system the first step is to realize that they are still a part of it. Political traditions are easy to start but hard to break but if a candidate where willing to go against the part to capture other voters it could be a great thing for this country.

Killian, Linda. "How Independents Could Sway Primaries in Mass., N.H., and R.I." Washington Wire RSS. September 9, 2014. Accessed September 11, 2014.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/09/09/how-independents-could-sway-primaries-in-mass-n-h-and-r-i/