Chosing Sides

After reading fellow classmate Scott's blog post What side are we on?, there are a couple of things that stick out. First of all I would be surprised to find out that the number of independents are increasing relative to the number of Democrats or Republicans. It would have been nice to include a link to this information (if it exists). Secondly, I wonder if true independents would take kindly to being classified as "on the fence" about their political viewpoints. I know a number of independents who have much stronger political inclinations then most other folks I have talked to, Republican or Democrat. I definitely agree with Scott's analysis of people feeling disenchanted with their chosen party for any number of reasons, but I don't think that it is fair to say that they are simply answering that feeling with "becoming independent". There is an appropriate quote from the website of the Committee for Unified Independent Voters:

For CUIP, independents are not "swing voters" who exist to be wooed and swayed by one or the other major party. Independents have strongly held beliefs about how partisanship and ideological labeling are corrupting and constraining progress. Independents defy traditional political labels; what they share is support for the principle that radical structural reform of the electoral process and of government is the urgent political necessity of the day.

I think that most Independent voters hope change the entire bipartisan system that has dominated U. S. politics since its beginnings and give voters more options, and ability to vote on issues that are important to them.....whether or not this would be a good change is another debate for another time.