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February 15, 2006

Comments

Just the tip of the iceberg?

Maybe the extremes of both parties have finally tipped the balance and essentially made themselves irrelevant. I’m thrilled to see the “Independent Bandwagon” (maybe it’s my nature as a tuba player.)

I think the distinction is critical that they don’t intend a new party, but a philosophy. If the electorate can gather around a clear, centrist movement, the parties will eventually follow.

I’ll be in touch with the “Bandwagon”, and I’m encouraged by the PEARL project recently stirring thing up in the Corvallis area. I think there’s much more pent-up demand for a new style of politics than the politicians realize.

Michael Smith
Candidate for President

Brian,

I agree with your comments on the political center and with your article from December:

"The right is right on immigration reform"

I'll be contacting the Bandwagon as soon as I'm done here. Thanks for the tip!

I too have taken political quizzes that showed me outside of the "center." And I think that underscores the fact that being an Independent is not necessarily the same thing as being a centrist. I've been a registered Independent (non-affiliated once Oregon gained an "Independent" party) since Bush 41. Prior to that I was a Republican and even after that I continued to vote GOP about 2 to 1 over Dems. Since Bush 43 got in office that has flip-flopped and I find myself voting for Dems most of the time.

For me there are two separate issues in play.

One is ideology. I self-identify as a moderate, meaning that I see some merit to both Liberal and Conservative ideologies but also see lack of merit to aspects of each.

The other is that I don't believe it is healthy for either party to gain nearly as much of the upper hand as the Republicans have over the last decade.

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