Friday, January 05, 2007

Independents, Unite!

As a registered Independent, I don't have a whole lot of interaction with people who think the way I do politically, since we're not what you'd call organized. So recently, for various reasons, I kind of, sort of, maybe halfway joined a network of Independent voters -- from a safe distance, meaning through a website. Shortly afterward, I had an email exchange with one of the organizers, who was inviting me to join in an upcoming teleconference. I swear, my body literally tensed up as I read the email. They want me to...to...do something?? To participate?? Give me a break! I'm an Independent!

I declined in a bumbling sort of way, unintentionally tipping her off to the fact that I don't want to get involved or anything. In a subsequent email I could almost hear her chuckling; she must get that kind of reaction all the time.

It's really quite comical, the idea that Independents could ever become an organized force. And yet, I'm not so sure it's all that improbable, especially in the wake of the '06 midterms. But still. There's something deliciously funny about trying to organize a ragtag group of stubborn voters. Can we hang out together sometime? Sure. Will we be unified? Only in our insistence that we remain independent. Oh, the challenges!

2 comments:

John Michael De Marco said...

I don't relate enough to either of the major parties anymore, after several years of voting heavily for one of them in particular. I was registered "no party" for a long time, back when I was a full-time newspaper journalist. Not too long ago I explored the Libertarian Party Web site, out of curiosity. Guess I'm a post-political misfit?

Marcia Ford said...

Then there's the Constitution Party, the Green Party...and whatever happened to the Reform Party? I'm just not a party animal and never will be, at least not in the political sense.