The Dilemma of the Independent Voter
What’s behind the red door? The blue door?
Our political system operates essentially under two banners: the progressive left Democrats and the conservative right Republicans. Individual voters, though, increasingly try to straddle the line by identifying themselves as Independents, resting a foot in each of the two camps, but tending to lean toward one pole or the other at the ballot box. We have in West Virginia about 25% of our voters registered as Independents (No Party). In addition, 33% of our adult population is not registered to vote. That’s a lot of people who are leery of or turned off to politics.
Independents are typically not happy with any government run by either of the two prevailing powers. This might explain why America and to some extent West Virginia have swung back and forth in party allegiance. In one election Republicans win big, in the next Democrats win big. In West Virginia the swings run by decade, rather than by election. We once were solidly blue Democrats and then we became what we are today, solidly red Republicans.
I’d like to suggest that neither is desirable. It’s a situation that guarantees some significant part of the population is going to be disappointed and wanting to see a change. It’s a situation in which the legislative priorities of whichever party is in power will please some folks and anger others. But that’s democracy – always in a struggle to please everyone, but rarely doing so.
Sometimes it takes a global emergency, like the Great Depression and World War II, to bring the population together or it’s a national emergency, like the Civil War, to raise the prospect of irreconcilable differences and ultimately divorce.
Democracy is rooted in the notion of fairness. Democracy strives to be fair, not to everyone in exactly the same quality and quantity, but to everyone to some degree having rights to resources, education, health care, housing, mobility. Democracy recognizes, practically speaking, that people are going to differ in their inherent ability or willingness to access those rights.
People’s access to rights are obtained through money, biology, social status, personal incentive and drive. If they’re lacking in any of these, people’s rights are limited both in quantity and quality.
What democracy claims to do is to dole out equal opportunity to everyone. If a government does not fairly provide that opportunity, it’s not operating on the principle that “all men are created equal.” It’s saying instead that some people are “endowed by their creator” as better than others. In that situation it’s oligarchy, not democracy. Some versus the all.
Independents are the main levers of political change. It’s probably fair to say that the Republicans in power today in West Virginia and locally in Jefferson and Berkeley Counties are there because Republicans have convinced many Independents to vote their agenda. Most recently the Republican agenda has focused on immigration, affordability, and social conservatism.
It’s probably natural that when a political party wins broadly, it goes overboard in trying to put its policy positions into law. This is what the Republicans have done now. They’ve closed the borders and are actively removing people not born here, with little concern for these people’s immigration status or their humanity. They’ve enhanced the already powerful influence of rich individuals and rich corporations allowing them to make even more money, even at the cost of reducing opportunities and increasing risk for others in the population. They’ve declared that some classes of individuals are not due the rights of people like them. They are not Christian, not straight, not white.
This is the conservative Republican party overreaching. It’s unfair, and it makes no apologies for being unfair. Instead, it tries to change the subject or all too typically lie or hide the dirty linen. It’s time for a correction-—a Democratic correction, one that adheres to the belief that every human has potential, which must be respected. Start from that premise and build out policy. If we make mistakes, own up to them and change course. Democracy is a continuing experiment.
