I consider myself an indepenent, and your characterization of independents struck me as completely 180 degrees from my own personal perspective.
Your opinion that an independent is one who "Follows the crowd", while true of the politically ignorant or simply lazy voters who refuse to do ANY research, goes completely against my own personal political philosophy.
WHY I am an independent-is because I REFUSE to follow the crowd- be it left or right.
I can understand both perspectives to a degree (usually) and sometimes one side will have a more reasonable, logical or moral argument.
There are certain topics that are blatantly partisan and ask you to forsake reason and drink that particular brand of Kool-aid.
And yes, the ignorant-on both sides-seem to let that be their raison d'etre.
Both sides do it, some more than others.
But I have to believe that to follow ANY party blindly- simply because they say they are either the party of God or the party of social justice or what have you- is to surrender your right to rationalize their values and objectives in comparison to your own.
I have never been willing to blindly follow a political party or philosophy simply because on the surface both left and right parties claim the moral highground.- yet when scrutinized BOTH parties have high levels of corruption to a sad extent.
And surprisingly the corruption is usually for the same reasons -money or power.
So when people ask me which way I lean politically , it depends on the candidates record and public views, NOT on their party or talking head on the TV or endorsement by any one particular person or group.
In that sense, I am not what you would consider an independent.
I don't follow the masses but make my own informed decisions....which pisses off just about all my friends because they usually want to convince me to join their "team"...but I refuse.
i'm sure you've heard the 'common sense' argument. that's all i'm saying...it's an excuse for not actually knowing something. if someone says 'it's common sense', that's a way of making an unarguable point. every issue has complexities, whereas common sense is a catch-all for people who think they know something because of their 'instincts'. many of them call themselves independents, because that gets them off the hook for actually knowing the facts or making intelligent decisions. there are way more 'independents' than there are registered dems or repubs. i'm sure there are some exceptions to the things i pointed out, but i think it's a valid point. hope you're enjoying the blog!
I consider myself an indepenent, and your characterization of independents struck me as completely 180 degrees from my own personal perspective.
Your opinion that an independent is one who "Follows the crowd", while true of the politically ignorant or simply lazy voters who refuse to do ANY research, goes completely against my own personal political philosophy.
WHY I am an independent-is because I REFUSE to follow the crowd- be it left or right.
I can understand both perspectives to a degree (usually) and sometimes one side will have a more reasonable, logical or moral argument.
There are certain topics that are blatantly partisan and ask you to forsake reason and drink that particular brand of Kool-aid.
And yes, the ignorant-on both sides-seem to let that be their raison d'etre.
Both sides do it, some more than others.
But I have to believe that to follow ANY party blindly- simply because they say they are either the party of God or the party of social justice or what have you- is to surrender your right to rationalize their values and objectives in comparison to your own.
I have never been willing to blindly follow a political party or philosophy simply because on the surface both left and right parties claim the moral highground.- yet when scrutinized BOTH parties have high levels of corruption to a sad extent.
And surprisingly the corruption is usually for the same reasons -money or power.
So when people ask me which way I lean politically , it depends on the candidates record and public views, NOT on their party or talking head on the TV or endorsement by any one particular person or group.
In that sense, I am not what you would consider an independent.
I don't follow the masses but make my own informed decisions....which pisses off just about all my friends because they usually want to convince me to join their "team"...but I refuse.
i'm sure you've heard the 'common sense' argument. that's all i'm saying...it's an excuse for not actually knowing something. if someone says 'it's common sense', that's a way of making an unarguable point. every issue has complexities, whereas common sense is a catch-all for people who think they know something because of their 'instincts'. many of them call themselves independents, because that gets them off the hook for actually knowing the facts or making intelligent decisions. there are way more 'independents' than there are registered dems or repubs. i'm sure there are some exceptions to the things i pointed out, but i think it's a valid point. hope you're enjoying the blog!
Very well written, your style is unique. Love reading these gems
Liked the reference to Dad, maybe he didn’t like Romney because of the Mormon thing? Dad was Catholic and serious about it (but reticent)
i assumed it was the rich banker thing, but i hadn't considered the mormon thing.
yes, you're right about that