A Statement of My Independence
Why no party can rely on my vote, when all they care for is themselves.
I tried to be a party animal.
For the latter half of the oughties, my activist tendencies led me into a handful of political party roles, culminating in a three-year stint as Chair of the Platform and Resolutions Committee of the Democratic Party of Oregon (DPO). Last year, I felt gratified to learn—from my OTGC writing partner Joel—that a small handful of process improvements I helped navigate into place, back in the day, still guide aspects of that state party’s bi-annual platform convention.
Along the way to those, though, I learned how visibility is the only political currency in a democracy, and that small-stake contests are as bloody as any other. Many party animals will stab backs as needed, to rise into the lights.
Ask me how I know.
Which is why I know that people occupying a political spotlight for more than a hot minute tend to be deeply compromised, and to avoid making changes that would matter to average voters. Average voters do not own spotlights, much less have enough money to pay the power bills needed to keep those spotlights lit.
I do not feel particularly bad about any of this. Human beings preen. Preening is baked into our biology. We preen to get laid, and scream to dominate. Parties are full of ambitious people, acting out on their ambitions.
It would be naive and utopian of me to expect any different.
But, this also means I often have better places to spend my time and money than helping party activists play their party games, inside a broken process.
Thirteen years ago, the Christian aspects of my spirituality settled into the Anglican tradition, for it being a welcoming and gently held approach to my childhood catholicism. Some ritual, some mysticism, and easy on the dogma. It works, for me.
The American expression of Anglican tradition is The Episcopal Church. This church operates as a democracy, not an empire. A democracy that has, at points, told both Popes and Kings to go take a walk; a fact that nurtures my middling anti-authoritarianism. Leadership, yes, but also decentralization, please.
Anglicans walk a willfully middle way between the ancient, imperial Christian tradition, with its pope and patriarchs, and the younger traditions, which have been protesting against Christendom for the past 500 years, to the point of giving any dude with a Bible the right to thump it at others for money.
The middle way takes some of each and leaves the cultishness behind. The only promises one makes as a member of this middle way are listed in a Baptismal Covenant, the most often cited line of which is:
Question: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
Response: I will, with God’s help.1
Episcopalians are offered an opportunity to speak and re-commit to this line, publicly, as a group, on Easter every year, if one chooses to do so. No one will likely notice if you keep quiet, much less ask you to leave. It’s a personal thing.
Regardless, every human being is a very big group. We need to work together.
I dropped out of party politics after the 2010 election.
In doing so, I joined the apparently incomprehensible (to party leadership) 45% of voters, averaged by age, who do not identify as Republican or Democrat2 and so are without an organized political home, due to the laws of American politics.
So, does this mean that (a) I support baby-murder, per much of the party with 28% average voter loyalty3? Or, does it mean (b) that I want Trans people to die, per much of the other, which likewise commands about 28% voter loyalty4?
Yes, #notalldemocrats and #notallrepublicans adhere to these hyper-partisan litmus tests. But, they are very real, and many do. These and similar trigger points (e.g., guns, racism) ignite enough passion to get ambitious party animals elected, by the dwindling ranks of party loyalists who show up for screaming.
(N.B.: the root problem is in the laws governing state by state election processes, which give unfair structural primacy to the two historic parties; but, the toxic impact of closed primaries, invested interests, and resulting stranglehold on genuine political diversity and discourse, is beyond scope this week.)
But, to simplify, if screaming led to positive change, wouldn’t we know by now?
A Vice Chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon once advised me, “process rarely works, Leo. You only win with popularity.” He was right. Our process has delivered President Trump, twice. He is very popular. His people love him.
Myself, I choose none of the above.
Instead, I consider every candidate. I look for one, single, over-arching theme in the noises any candidate makes: do they see every person, who would be subject to the laws they want to make, judge, or enforce, as deserving equal justice, peace, and dignity? Or, do they think some folks are, for any reason whatsoever, “more equal than” others?
I read candidate’s websites. It does not take long. They tend to be short these days, composed of little more than partisan catch-phrases. But, I try to read between whatever lines they provide, and assess their pool of concerns.
For example:
Everyone needs roads, otherwise we smash our axles and drive through yards. So, will they take care of the roads?
Everybody needs water and a place to poop, otherwise we all get cholera. So, does this candidate care about water, sewers, and public infrastructure?
Everybody needs food and a safe place to sleep, else we get criminals crawling through our windows. Does this candidate seem ready to manage the fact that starving and/or addicted people will kill to get what they need?
Everybody needs access to digital communication, to participate in the economy. Will this candidate work to ensure everyone does, and securely?
Everybody needs a planet to live on. Will this candidate waste our planet, or protect it? It is the one and only livable planet we have.
Every person needs the feel the dignity of their labor is respected. So, will this candidate help ensure there is dignified work available for everyone?
Every adult needs to live among voters who can read, write, do basic math, and understand civics well enough to vote. So, will this candidate ensure good public schools and teaching are available for everyone?
Does this candidate seem mature enough to grasp simple principles, like an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?
Is this candidate mature enough to grasp things most of us know from shopping at Costco, like buying in bulk saves money?
I could go on. So could you.
The point is: none of these ideas are hard. None are extreme. All of them leave room for diversity. All of them are boring, and agreeably middle of the road.
Too boring to get the screamers, who want to dominate others, enough attention to get elected. And that is the problem: good public administration is boring, but Americans love excitement. Americans love screaming, and horror movies.
Can systemic political polarization be fixed by an unorganized 45% of the electorate, sitting in the middle of the road, looking for some quiet? I do not know. Still, that is where my deepest beliefs put me: in a middle ground where every person has the right to expect equal justice, equal peace, and common dignity, and otherwise be left to follow their personal weird.
This goes especially for any weirdoes I do not like.
Any candidate who can place this “baptismal” truth at the center of their politics will get serious consideration for my vote.
I could not care less what color they wear while doing it.
Baptismal Covenant of The Episcopal Church
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/what-we-believe/baptismal-covenant/
Gallup Poll, January 12, 2026. New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx
“AP FACT CHECK: Trump, his baby ‘executions’ and the reality”, AP News (5/13/19).
“The Right Wants to Exterminate Trans People. Liberals Are Helping.”, The Nation Magazine (9/24/25).
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/right-anti-trans-campaign-republicans-democrats-liberals/