Vote Anti Incumbent

Independents Have No Convictions

“Independents have no convictions”.   This idea was put forth by a partisan, who strongly disagreed with the other major political party, but felt if his party were to lose an election, it would be better to lose to the other major political party rather than to an independent.

In explaining, he says an independent are sort of in the middle and have no strong beliefs of their own.

Independents are not affiliated with any political party.  They do not follow the dogma of any group, but make up their own minds.  Independent votes cast their vote for candidates and issues rather than on the basis of political party and usually do not vote for the same party, election after election.  Being an independent voter you can vote for a candidate of either a major party,a third party, a write in candidate or none of the above.
Independents may have a centralist viewpoint somewhere between there two major parties or their viewpoint may not be expressed by any party.   Just because an independent voter’s viewpoint, formulated on their own, is not shared by the majority or even a large number of others, does not mean they do not have convictions.

Convictions or values are not necessarily imposed upon you by others, convictions can be self originated and self formulated based on the individual’s own experience, observations and thoughts.  A major party often claims “others” who do not share their values, have no values or convictions of their own, casting their party as the only one with values.  This may be the party of the person claiming “independents have no convictions”.  That is not “his values and convictions”, so they don’t count in his mind.  This attitude is enough reason alone to be an independent, in my opinion.
Noteworthy independents in Presidential elections of recent times included John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1992, Ralph Nader.   There have been many independent candidates in congress and state elections.  Certainly anymore who was around in 1992 and heard Ross Perot speak, could never say the man did not have convictions of his own.

If there were more independent voters and independent candidates, there would be less partisanship.  Partisanship is loyalty to your political party on the majority of their platform and opposing the other party’s success in any way, even when they are in elected office.

Today Independents face pressure from their friends, relatives, neighbors and other social groups.  These strong party partisans apply pressure to join them or become their enemy.  This forces some to go along with the group because that is the easier path, rather then to think things through and formulation their own opinions.  Talk radio and TV network partisans have also fueled this partisanship.  It is never easy to think for yourself but for the good of the country, please do!