Party, Movement or Person?

I have been thinking about this topic for awhile. I have always been a person voter. I have always registered since 1965, in one form or other, as an independent. I have been a voter in NY, CA, NJ, and WA. Since retuning to NY in 2000, I decided to take part in the political process and became a member of the Independence Party and now I am in my 4th term as part of the State Committee and local Executive Committee of the party. Since NY is a Fusion state, I am still able to support candidates of different persuasions who share my objectives of structural political reform.

Here in NY, we have a group called CUIP & IndependentVoting.org whose mission is:

A national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents, to develop a movement of independent voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the American political process. Independents seek to diminish the regressive influence of parties and partisanship by opening up the democratic process. Independents in the CUIP networks are creating new electoral coalitions such as the Black and Independent Alliance, supporting new models of nonpartisan governance and striving for the broadest forms of “bottom-up” participation.

Use the above link to find out more about CUIP.

Here are others with similar thoughs like mine:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - "Since I've been one of everything in my career at one time or another, I don't think that party matters, What you want are people who are independent in their views. That they don't listen to the party bosses. That they listen to the issues. They're smart enough to analyze it. That they have the experiences that we need in the legislature to know how to address the problems."

Damon Eris, independent blogger - "I am looking forward to the presidential elections of 2040. If, over the next thirty years, the US electorate proves incapable of retiring the majority of sitting legislators and executives, and if, over the same period, the free market proves incapable of retiring the majority of television talking heads we are forced to tolerate, it is a good bet that by 2040 time itself will have retired them for us."

So in the future, are we ready as voters to look at the candidates as indivuals?

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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