Submitted 4 hours ago by SwissArmyKazoo@lemmy.world to [deleted]
I really feel like Politics is a platform that can’t be independent unlike Music and Journalists
It doesn’t make any sense for a social activity based on keeping the country in order and making all the choices in community to be done independenly especially in a two party system between democrats and fascists.
Nah, no major party deserves any allegiance. I vote Democrat when the candidate is good enough and not running against someone better, sure, but if they want my vote they have to earn it every time. Same with the Greens (though they tend to only field candidates who are qualified in local races) same with the Republicans (though they tend to not field candidates who are qualified) or any other party.
No
I might get hate, but who cares. I’ve recently discovered the Forward Party, and while no party is perfect, I feel they have the most logical approach.
They have an ethics statement, values section… I mean, who cares “how” you lean, because it seems like they’re just trying to help clean up the trash in politics now.
The truth is that, by any normal definition, Republicans are far right and Democrats are centre right.
If you actually wanted to run a progressive platform, then running as an Independent might be your only choice.
In the UK at least, most Independent candidates run single-issue platforms. Hartlepool famously elected a guy dressed as a monkey as mayor, he ran on a platform of “free bananas for school children”. He did so well as mayor, they elected him two more times.
Another costumed independent, Count Binface (an intergalactic space warrior who wears a dustbin on his head) beat the far-right Britain First party in the London Mayoral election (although sadly didn’t win the actual mayorship).
Most independents I know are very progressive but don’t pick a team. They defined their political views on an issue by issue basis. The problem with picking a team is picking that identity and letting the party dictate what you should think. Being a proper independent takes more work. You have to read into each candidate not just pick a letter.
Also you have tactical voting. I vote in every primary as a Republican to put the progressive in the best position then vote against them in the general if that makes sense for that race. Sometimes the progressive are not running in that district so in that case you vote the moderate Republican in the primary to do the least amount of harm to progressives.
I honesty wish more progressives would run in Republicans races incognito. so we can fuck up their numbers like Sinema or Fetterman.
💯
No.
People have all sorts of political beliefs that don’t neatly fit into your categories for them.
depends on the country. here independents are just people who have split with the party they campaigned with, and they’re not eligible for re-election but allowed to stay the period for the sake of balancing the numbers.
Jeez playing coin toss with your political compass seems like a do or die situation huh.
Why would cromires even bother letting their orange dictator restrain them on a leesh
most of the world doesn’t have a “yes” party and a “no” party. if you agree on all but one point with your party, but you or them feel strongly about that point, leaving their ranks to join up with one of the other 10 parties that align with you more is a pretty simple decision. but since you can’t do that in the middle of a term you get to sit as independent until it’s up, otherwise the vote count is wrong.
Some of them certainly are … maybe even a rather high percentage.
But you really can’t generalize ‘independents’. They’re kind of by definition a whole basket of different types of people who for any of many reasons don’t want to be associated with any established party. And not being associated with established parties is the only thing they really have in common.
Yes
I’m registered Libertarian (we all make mistakes). I just haven’t gotten around to changing my voter registration. It’s such a pain in the ass.
Depending on where you live, you should consider swapping to unaffiliated. In many states, you are automatically given the primary ballot for your registered party, but unaffiliated voters (vote: distinct from “Independent”) get to chose which ballot they want, allowing you to be more tactical in your choices. This is known as a semi-closed primary process.
Not in my experience.
Now the Fiscally Conservative, but Socially liberal ones certainly are.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
Nope.
I’m rather progressive, and openly identify as a socialist, and I have registered unaffiliated (note: distinct from “independent” in the US, because the American Independent Party is squatting on that moniker, annoyingly, which tends to confuse a lot of people). It’s quite clear to me at this point that the Democratic Party establishment is basically just diet Republican with less (overt) fascism. Our two party system is utterly fucked. Both parties need to die.