I’ve never been asked what my political party identity is. In the battlefield of certain social media pages where I’ve occasionally commented, some have leaped to the conclusion that I’m a Republican. Some have done so even projecting a dated stereotype that I must also golf. That’s hilariously off base as I find golf tedious at best and golf culture somewhat off-putting. Those that know me personally also never ask my party identity, maybe assuming the same but for different reasons. I’m first and foremost, a conservative and second, an ‘Independent’ voter.
I was formerly a Republican. In my politically formative years, being a Republican stood for conservatism. I was a believer. Sometime around midway into Obama’s two terms, when the House of Representatives was presided over by John Boehner and Paul Ryan, I flipped out of the Republican party due to their supine manner in representing conservative values in the face of Obama’s arrogant dealings with Congress. Only later did I learn just how far gone they were with their RINO convictions. If they were Republicans, I didn’t want anything to do with that party.
For a time, while being an Independent, I actively considered the Libertarian party as half my convictions fell within their general matrix. I still keep a live and let live approach to personal freedoms which occasionally don’t gel with other conservatives, but I ultimately learned that that just was a veneer for where the core of the Libertarian Party stands. I gradually abandoned any hope of having a political home there, to observe that a) they don’t take their own movement seriously enough to learn to govern, b) their own version of a ‘big tent’ is actually full of progressives c) some of their theoretical beliefs cross into the absurd or abhorrent. I rarely ever mention my libertarian side any more even though I quietly keep my own small set of its principles.
I also at some point publicly (even in these posts some time ago) considered myself a ‘moderate’ or centrist in the Wall Street Journal sense of the word. While that might be considered the same as a RINO in many people’s estimation, it was not. It included fiscal moderation, some classical conservatism, and some hands-off do as you will libertarianism. I’ve mentioned before that I was effectively a never-Trumper leading up to his 2016 election, gradually changing my stance thereafter. By his final year in office, I arrived at the conviction that Donald Trump was the best option that we had for carrying and advancing conservative positions.
Donald Trump is now firmly the leader of the Republican Party, why might I not finally return to whence I started? The easiest answer is that while Trump now leads the party, I don’t believe he yet fully trusts them even now and he shouldn’t. They are a necessary evil for him, but not for me. Trump has one major weakness; he has overly trusted people that he was forced to work with because that’s all he had available, and they disguised their true allegiances. I believe he’s now more aware of it having been stabbed in the back so many times but that doesn’t lessen the threat. During his term in office, they proved to be a snake pit. For certain, there are many true heroes of conservatism in the Republican Party; let them do what they can, but the party isn’t fully remade yet, not by a long shot. There are a lot of marginalized RINOs roaming around the back halls of power, wearing a happy MAGA face, anxiously waiting their shot at ascendancy again someday.
There is no party convention for the Independent, thus they shape no platform. They show up as a well-definable demographic group in polls and by that mechanism, they shape some policy about as much as party regulars. In instances where there’s a real race with no clear leading candidate, Independents hold more sway than party regulars who are mostly, safely taken for granted by both parties.
Remaining Independent isn’t a bad place to be. In one sense, it’s the best position from which to influence the Republican Party. And of course, my vote still counts as much as anyone’s.