Independents’ Day

“Neither party is mine, not the jackass or the elephant.” — Chuck D

Jonah Goldberg doesn’t like Independents and he doesn’t like all the fawning over them by the press. As an Independent I suppose I should take umbrage at this, but he does make some good points. Some “swing voters” certainly make up their minds on the shallowest of criteria (Like, say, who has the better hair!). And he’s right that there’s no virtue per se in not having strong convictions or in waiting til the last minute to make up your mind.

 

Nevertheless, as a registered Independent (or as the say here in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a “decline to state”), I think there are good reasons for not being affiliated with any party.

 

For starters, the cluster of positions that characterize Democrats and Republicans do not, as far as I can tell, hang together in any organic or particularly consistent way. What does favoring a strong military have to do with cutting capital gains taxes or opposing abortion? What principle unites environmentalism and support for gun control?

 

I find myself taking positions on various issues that regularly cross the liberal/conservative divide, so why should I sign up with one team or the other? This does require making judgments about which issues should receive the most weight in a given election. For instance, right now the war seems to me to be the issue of paramount importance, so I will weight it accordingly when deciding how to vote this fall.

 

Moreover, being an Independent gives you a certain psychological and moral freedom. I don’t feel obliged to defend someone’s sleazy tactics or lies just because they’re on “my team.” This doesn’t make me perfectly objective (there’s no such thing!), but it does create a certain critical distance.