The Problem of the Independent Voter

Today in the United States, more often than not, we hear our friends and colleagues assert something like the following: “I vote independent;” or perhaps, “Since both parties are corrupt, I cast my vote for each individual candidate, not for a party;” or even worse, “I don’t ever vote, that way, I don’t ever have to share any of the blame for the failure of the system.” While voter registration has traditionally always been low in this country, party affiliation since the 1950s has experienced a marked decline among those that do register. On one hand, advocates of this trend claim that this forces parties to work harder on explaining their positions and solutions to the public. On the other hand, critics often cite that the rise of disaffiliated voters leads to a “run to the middle” of the political spectrum where both parties eventually seem virtually indistinguishable. In some sense, both these views are intuitive, but I want to argue an alternative perspective. The independent voter, rather than undercutting the power of the political party, actually increases its influence, and ultimately marginalizes the electorate from meaningful political action. In fact, I contend that the many of the problems we blame on the bipartisan system in Washington (polarization and gridlock, corporate and lobbyist influence, alienation of the constituencies, etc.) stem from the refusal for this large group of Americans to affiliate some political party.
For those independents out there, I imagine you’re saying right now, “There isn’t a party out there that accurately reflects my beliefs, so why would I commit myself to some organization that doesn’t share my political and social goals?” I intend not to dispute this claim, because I share your view completely. However, the modern political party, as it emerged in the 1830s in the United States, was never intended to be an ideologically driven group. This would be what some of the founding fathers referred to as a faction. Instead, we might better understand political parties as a loose coalition of vested interests, networked together in order to attain the requisite power to direct policy and legislation. Of course, broadly, a party would be linked through some basic political philosophy, but one in which there should be a good deal of diversity.
With this new picture in mind, we are motivated to change how we engage and use our rights as voters. We, in effect, become political actors. For too many decades have we encountered our politicians as we do any other commodity, as consumers, waiting to see who will sway us in their favor, who can convince us that they have the best product to sell. As participants, we not only vote in the general election, but we also exercise our choice in primaries, something that even most affiliated voters fail to accomplish. After all, if we only vote in the general election, are we really exercising our suffrage, or merely putting our stamp of approval on one of a few candidates deemed acceptable by the party leaders?
Moreover, if we understand parties as coalitions, then we also might be encouraged to work within the party to change its culture, beliefs, and goals. Of course, we have to allow for some disagreement, but our involvement would reclaim these parties for the people on the ground. Currently, the lack of popular investment in the party system is precisely why these organizations tend to behave more like factions, and less like coalitions. The party must sell itself like a brand, it must present a coherent and strict ideology to the voters, while hiding its coalitional behavior from the public. Politics in a republic of 300 million citizens cannot be as simple as ideology; it is, in the end, about give and take, about compromise, and if voter can understand that the political party is the most effective means to achieving certain ends in our system, then perhaps we can all begin to more effectively harness their potential for the greater good. Until we do, parties will continue to misdirect the electorate, remain polarized between extreme competing ideologies, and respond only to pressures external to the parties (i.e. corporate interests, and other moneyed groups). So, I beseech of you to join a party, even if it’s a third party, get involved at the local level, and work to build back the civic-consciousness that has withered…