Interesting political development... In the race for the Kansas senate, an independent (Greg Orman) is substantially leading the incumbent (Pat Roberts). Roberts is Republican in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat for senator for a long, long time – and the conventional wisdom was that he was a shoe-in for this election cycle.
What I find interesting about this is that Orman appears to be genuinely independent: a politician without any party affiliation, affection, or even influence. He's got his own views on a wide variety of topics, and they don't fit well with either party's platform. He's a wealthy businessman, and self-funding (so doesn't need any party money). His positions are more in conflict with my own than in agreement, but he does appear to be more interested in solving problems than in any particular ideology.
This strikes me as much closer to the Founding Father's ideas about “citizen government” than the party system we have today. I'm not sure what a Senate full of a diverse group of truly independent thinkers would be like, but I'm pretty sure I'd like it better than the current mess.
But then, I guess that's a pretty low bar, isn't it?
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