It's time.
For quite a while now we have been working under the two party system in the U.S. The system has been gamed by those already in the system to make it incredibly difficult to get elected unless they run either as a Democrat or Republican. (Unless of course you're from Vermont.) The rare third party candidates need to be largely self-funded these days in order to compete with the "big guys."
NYC Mayor Bloomberg has just recinded his Republican party moniker to become "unaffiliated." Granted this wasn't much of a stretch because he was a Democrat up until the point where he realized he could get elected Mayor by switching to the Republican party. So unaffiliated (which I'll just call Independent because I feel like it) is a good middling description for him. But the point here is that we have the Mayor of a major U.S. city who decided that he could best govern without the constraints of a "party platform" to which he had to conform. Which means he can use good ideas no matter which party thinks them up. Which means that he can perhaps actually get things accomplished withough worrying about whether someone will jump on him for not adhering to the party "group thought."
There are a few other independent thinkers that still belong to one of the two major parties, but they often are assailed as the outsiders in their respective caucuses. Perhaps these folks would consider changing their party affiliation to Independent. Perhaps we as voters could insist that our representatives consider all reasonable options, and seek common ground with the goal of resolving issues. This seems like a better way of moving forward than simply staking out anti positions to whatever position the other side espouses.
It's Independents Day!!!
