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I'm not sure how old I was when I first decided that I was an Independent. It was probably when I was twelve or thirteen years old.

There has always been a good deal of arguing in our family between the Democrats and the Republicans. Some of it was just good natured ribbing, but at other times it got down-right ugly. At those times one uncle might not speak to another for months at a time.

Even for a twelve year old, some of these fights seemed utterly ridiculous! I mean, if you're a Democrat and the democratic party is fighting to pass some bill and everything that you do indicates that you would be against that bill, how can you stand there and argue that the Democratic party is right?

Same goes for a Republican! How can you vote for the Republican candidate if he stands for everything that you hate?

I knew from the time that I was a teenager that I would listen to everyone running for office and vote for the person who I thought was had the best interests of the American people at heart. It wouldn't matter if that person were Republican, Democrat or whatever. It didn't matter if that person agreed with me on every issue or not as long as their ideas made sense and they were willing to fight for them even if it meant disagreeing with their own party.

Now, I know that it is very unlikely that an Independent will ever be elected to the presidency again. There are just to many Republicans and Democrats! But I can still register as an Independent and vote for the person that I think will do the best job. And I can still believe that anyone who backs their party (right or wrong) has got to be a complete idiot!

In politics, an independent is a politician who is not affiliated with any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses. Other independent candidates are associated with a political party and may be former members of it, but choose not to stand under its label. A third category of independents are those who may belong to or support a political party but believe they should not formally represent it and thus be subject to its policies. Finally, some independent candidates may form a political party for the purposes of running for public office.

President
Historically, George Washington was the only president elected as an independent, as he was not formally affiliated with any party during his two terms.

John Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party in September 1841, and remained effectively an independent for the remainder of his presidency, later becoming a Democrat. He briefly sought re-election in 1844 as a National Democrat, but withdrew as he feared to split the Democratic vote.

Recent prominent independent candidates for president of the United States include John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1992, and 1996, and Ralph Nader in the 2004 and 2008 elections. In 2008, independent Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader formed Independent Parties in New Mexico, Delaware, and elsewhere to gain ballot access in several states. This strategy has been pursued by several 'independent' candidates for Federal races, including Joe Lieberman (Connecticut for Lieberman).

Governor
Maine, Oregon and Texas are the only states to have elected formally independent candidates as governor: James B. Longley in 1974 and Angus King in 1994 and 1998 from Maine, Julius Meier in 1930 from Oregon, and Sam Houston in 1859 from Texas. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. is sometimes mentioned as an independent governor, though this is not technically correct; he ran as A Connecticut Party candidate (which gave him better ballot placement than an unaffiliated candidate would receive), defeating the Democratic and Republican party nominees. Another former governor who is sometimes mentioned as an independent is Jesse Ventura, who actually ran as a member of the Reform Party's Minnesota affiliate, which later disaffiliated from the party and reverted to their original name the Independence Party of Minnesota.

In 1971, State Senator Henry Howell of Virginia, a former Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor as an independent. Two years later, he campaigned for governor as an independent, losing the election by only 15,000 votes.

There were several unsuccessful independent gubernatorial candidates in 2006 who impacted their electoral races. In Maine, state legislator Barbara Merrill (formerly a Democrat) received 21% of the vote in Maine. In Texas, country music singer and mystery novelist Kinky Friedman received 12.435 of the vote, and State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn received 18.13%. Strayhorn and Friedman's presence in the race resulted in a splitting of the ballot four ways between themselves and the two major parties.

Congress
There have been several independents elected to the United States Senate throughout history. Notable examples include David Davis of Illinois (a former Republican) in the nineteenth century, and Harry F. Byrd, Jr. of Virginia (who had been elected to his first term as a Democrat) in the twentieth century. Some officials have been elected as members of a party but became independent while in office (without being elected as such), such as Wayne Morse of Oregon or Virgil Goode of Virginia. Vermont senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent in 2001. Jeffords's change of party status was especially significant because it shifted the Senate composition from 50-50 between the Republicans and Democrats (with a Republican Vice President, Dick Cheney, who would presumably break all ties in favor of the Republicans), to 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats, and one Independent. Jeffords agreed to vote for Democratic control of the Senate in exchange for being appointed chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the Democrats held control of the Senate until the Congressional elections in 2002, when the Republicans regained their majority. Jeffords retired at the end of his term in 2007. Wayne Morse after two years as an independent became Democrat, while Goode switched to Republican.

Representative Bernie Sanders was an independent member of the United States House of Representatives for Vermont-at-large from 1991 to 2007. Sanders later won the open Senate seat of Jim Jeffords as an independent. Joe Lieberman a former Democrat who ran, like Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., under a third party (Connecticut for Lieberman Party) in the 2006 election. Though both representatives are technically independent politicians, they caucus with the Democrats. In 2006, there were only two victorious independent candidates for Congress: Bernie Sanders and Joseph Lieberman.

State and local offices
In August 2008, there were twelve people who held offices as independents in state legislatures. There were four state senators, one from Kentucky, one from Oregon, one from Tennessee, and one from New Mexico. The representatives came from the states of Louisiana (two), Maine (two), Vermont (two), and Virginia (two). In the 2008 general elections, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Jeffrey Wood left the Republican Party and won reelection as an independent. After the 2008 primary election, New Mexico State Senator Joseph Carraro left the Republican Party and registered as an Independent. He did not run for reelection.

In November 2005 Manny Diaz was elected Mayor of Miami, Florida as an independent. On June 19, 2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent.

Wikipedia Article!

In my opinion Rush Limbaugh is a perfect example of a "political idiot"! He is notorious for running down the Democratic party.

I'm not sure if he's a "dyed in the wool" Republican or if he just figured out that there were enough "political idiots" out there that he could make a great living out of running down one of the political parties.

It's hard to believe that even the most dedicated Republican could not find something good in at least a few Democrats but if Rush has said anything decent about even one Democrat, I must have missed it.

I guess that's why I think he must just be in it for the money and it's also hard to believe that more Republicans don't find his rantings to be harmful to the party.

I'm sure there are a few who try to downgrade the Democrats for the same reasons but Rush has been doing it for so long that you hardly notice the others.

Obama's health care reform proves my point about most "party fanatics" being idiots!

Both the Republicans and the Democrats are working to sway their constituents. The Republicans are telling outright lies and instead of investigating, they are believing whatever the party tells them.

The one about Obama's plan dictating whether a person lives or dies when they get older is a good one. It reminds me of when I was a kid and there was a story going around that the government was going to force anyone over thirty to live in a "concentration" camp.

Suggesting that Obama's plan is going to aide in helping put the "old folks" to death is just as ridiculous, but because the Republican party says so, it must be true.

But then, the Democrats are not above shading some points of the plan if it helps their cause.

Come on people! Wake up! Get a little independence and think for yourselves. Before you believe everything you hear, get a copy of the plan and judge for yourself.