Is It Time For an Independent to Win the Presidency?

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   Valeantposted 2 years ago

   Wondering with the majority of voters in the country being independents now, is it time for a candidate representing neither of the two parties to be elected to the Presidency?
   
   That might remove some of the partisan biases that exist in government.
   
   A second question might need to be which ideals would they need to use to appeal to republicans and which to democrats to sway some.
   - Fiscal responsibility
   - Climate change
   - Gun rights
   - Right to life
   - Immigration

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      Readmikenowposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      That is a great idea.
      
      Do you know of any current politician that could accomplish such a thing? 
      
      In all honesty, I can't think of one politician who has a strong following from all independents.  I can't think of one politician who has the respect of both parties.
      
      I admit, President Donald Trump is a polarizing political figure.  All the top politicians of today are polarizing figures.
      
      I can't think of anyone both parties and independents could support.  I do believe if such a person existed, it would do the country good.

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      1. 86

         Valeantposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         If a Larry Hogan, Mitt Romney or a Pete Buttigieg were to unaffiliate, I believe they all speak quite plainly to the American people and none range too far from the middle. 
         
         I think one of the reasons Biden won was that Trump's portrayal of him as progressive did not stick, while Trump himself was so far to the right, especially in his failure to condemn white supremacy, that brought some of the middle class back to Biden.
         
         What the left might need is a fiscally conservative candidate.  While the right can put someone up that is socially liberal.  Like I've said in the past, I would have voted Kasich over Clinton had he been the GOP rep in 2016.  I liked his record on managing his state budget and he leaned socially accepting, so I could have lived with some of the other conservative policy leanings to avoid having another Clinton in the White House.
         
         I think Chris Christie is trying to reimage himself as this type of candidate, but not sure any of the left will ever forgive him for immediately aligning himself, and then backing the re-election by doing debate prep, of Trump.  His choices will forever align himself with Trumpism, let alone the Bridge scandal that reeked of Trumpian petty retribution.
         
         The better question becomes who do you see from our side that has any qualities you could support while overlooking other liberal policy leanings?
         
         Candidates like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo have gone so far right that they don't even resemble anything of their former selves.  And Kamala Harris is definitely not the answer in 2024, neither is an 84 year old Biden.  So that doesn't leave a lot of other options on the left.

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            wildernessposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            "What the left might need is a fiscally conservative candidate.  While the right can put someone up that is socially liberal."
            
            Isn't that a "pocket description" of a libertarian?  Perhaps that's what we need, not a true independent?

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               Valeantposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               Libertarians do indeed have government debt as an issue.  But they also want zero income taxes.
               
               https://www.lp.org/platform/

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                  wildernessposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                  Well, maybe we could find one with at least 1,000 working brain cells.  If nothing else it would be an improvement over the majority sitting in Congress now, and we could fund government for the countries needs without trying to give everyone everything they want but don't want to pay for.

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