The “Independent” Candidate

There is an independent party candidate running in my state of Kansas for the Senate name of Greg Orman. He says he is independent of both of the main parties but is he really? He gave money to Harry Reid and President Obama. He was formally a democrat. Just saying you’re independent doesn’t mean you are. It’s like saying you’re for hope and change.

Another reason I distrust the “independent” label is because most senators with that label are actually liberal or progressive. The American Conservative Union rates congress in how conservative a congress person is. Take a look at these so-called independent senators and their lifetime scores for 2013:

Angus King (Maine): 13

Bernie Sanders (Vermont): 6.3

Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut): 15.3

To be fair, Bernie Sanders states that he is a socialist. I like his honesty. Don’t like his politics. The rating for Joseph Lieberman was for 2012 since he retired in January of 2013. If you remember he was initially a democrat but changed to independent because the party bosses attacked him politically.

The reader might say three senators is too small a sample to draw any conclusion. Possibly, but you would think if they were truly independent their scores would be closer to 50%. Not way below 50%.  No matter what your party is you still have to vote your world-view or ideology. My advice is if you really don’t want to vote for the two main parties, don’t vote for an independent. Vote for a true third party like the libertarian party. I am not sure why the Kansas libertarian senate candidate isn’t running ads on TV saying he is the true independent candidate for the senate. Maybe, he doesn’t have enough money.

One other thing. I could not find any independent representatives for some reason.