It's interesting to note how much a simple decision that I made in my teenage life would impact me in such a way.

One of the things that I did when I turned eighteen was that I registered to vote. Going into the registration office, I knew that I wanted my opinion to matter more than I wanted it to be swayed and manipulated by partisan politics. I ultimately decided to register as an independent because I felt that my own personal views on politics was more than blindly than blindly following force-fed rhetoric.

As I liked to refer to it, "An independent mind with independent thoughts". I decided that my allegiance was not going to be with either side of the political coin. I also decided that I wanted to view things more with a critical mind rather than be forced to accept whatever nutty bullshit that would be part and parcel with whatever side of the coin I chose.

Now that I'm older, I'm starting to understand the significance of that decision I made when I was eighteen years of age. Since that day, I haven't changed my party affiliation off of independent. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a damn thing. I'm an independent, and I'm damn proud of it.

You look at the state of politics today, and you begin to see the downsides of aligning yourselves blindly to one side or the other. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have their good qualities, but their bad qualities outnumber the good ones to such a large degree that I personally cannot fathom siding with either party. Those bad qualities are why I stay an independent, because each side has their fair share of hypocritical bullshit that neither side wants to admit to.

I'm not a fence sitter when it comes to politics when I choose to engage with it - I'm more of a person that looks in between the lines, and I'm more concerned about ethics than I'm concerned about cheerleading for one side or the other. It's a trap that is becoming far too common nowadays - both sides get so deeply involved with throwing metaphorical (and sometimes literal) bricks at one another, and common sense falls by the wayside. The current state in politics, in my personal opinion, can be accurately likened to both sides accusing the opposing side of having more assholes than their own side. It gets old pretty fast.

Nor do I want to deal with the constant anger and frustration that goes hand-in-hand with politics. It's the one thing that politics does the best - put people against one another and fill them with negativity. The mindset of today's political world is polarizing and insane.

There are no shades of grey, only black and white, according to those that wear partisan politics on their sleeves. If you're not caught in the zealotry, you're considered the most evil person imaginable. Having politics make up that much about your character is enough to drive a sane person crazy.

To paraphrase something my father said to me many years back, "I don't mind religion being part of my life, but I don't want religion to become my life". This can be applied to politics as well. I don't mind politics being part of my life, but I don't want politics to become my life. I go so far as to completely ignore news channels as a whole, and ignore some news websites entirely. Their fixation on ramrodding partisan rhetoric within five seconds of watching a news video, every other click of a mouse or a swipe of the screen, it just gets to the point that you just don't want to deal with it anymore and go elsewhere.

Herein lies the core reason I'm an independent. When we allow politics to take control of our lives, whether it be willingly or unwillingly, we tend to wear our hearts on our sleeves and let anger and frustration do the thinking instead of calm and rationality. The chief problem that you have with politics, more than anything else, is that there is more of a focus on being right than actually doing the right thing. As long as we allow these biases dictate our lives, nothing productive will ever be accomplished. The only way anything of value ever will be accomplished is if we leave biases at the door and let cooler heads prevail.

Choosing to register as an independent was a choice I made based on how I viewed politics clear back then, which hasn't changed dramatically with how I view politics now. It was a choice that I made to have some clarity in my life. I wanted to ensure that I had some control in my life and not be dictated on what I should believe and whom to trust. All I am, and all that I ever will be, is an independent mind with independent thoughts.

So until next time, in the immortal words of Edward R. Murrow, "Good night and good luck".

Why I Became An Independent