Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Helping out Independent Texans


Some of my 'regulars' know that I am an Independent. For those who live outside of the US..that basically means someone who does not belong to either the Democrat or Republican parties, or it could also mean someone who does belong to either party, but votes independently of party favourites. In other words, if the candidate seems worthy and ascribes to the same stance on certain issues, an Independent voter will vote for that person, even if their 'own' party differs on that stance or has another candidate in opposition. Not to forget, it could also be someone who's normally a member of the Libertarian party or the Green party.

Are you confused enough? LOL. It is the mindset most of all that sets Independents apart and I would expect/suspect that if there were to be an Independent party, the people would still not necessarily vote along partisan lines.

One of the main issues that bind together such politically diverse group is election reforms, or the Initiative and Recall and Referendum. In Texas we have the Independent Texans organization which I joined a few years ago. This year, we have an excited Governor's race where the incumbent Rick Perry (R) is facing Chris Bell (D), Kinky Friedman (I), and Carole Keeton Strayhorn (I).

After an internal vote amongs the members of Independent Texans, the majority (87%) decided to endorse Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the self proclaimed 'one tough grandma'.
And last week, I decided that since I have gotten more blog savvy (with the help of some good blogger friends), I would volunteer for the next 3 months to help the IT organization with their blog. I already spruced it up with a very recognizable template (check and see, 5 brownie points if you can tell me why it's recognizable, cheap plug cheap plug alert!), and posted two posts. I will continue to add things to the site to hopefully increase readership from within the IT membership but also from outside Independent minded bloggers. The reason I like a lot of the blogs that I plugged in my previous posts is that they have personality. And you know..personality goes a long way! (just ask Quentin Tarrantino, who happens to be in town here in Austin) People also write from their personal standpoints, even if they use other articles or video's as their jumping board. And that's the whole point of a blog IMHO; it has to be personal otherwise you might as well call it a website.

So please, check out the Indytexans blog and give me some feedback, or pointers , or 'rara's.. I take anything. I want to get some 'movement' on there and get some interesting discussion going. And not one where people necessarily agree with each other either. It ought to be possible.

3 Comments:

Blogger - said...

Wow, it's like poof and I saw the new browser window open, but I was sure I had not left your site.

Weird

Independent Texans eh? I know a lot of Texans and I thought they were all pretty much Independent.

2:18 PM  
Blogger Endorendil said...

I'd say good luck, but I can't really mean it. As long as independents are content to pick from the scraps offered by the one-and-a-half parties, nothing can change. The occasional third party candidate doesn't help either. The US needs more national, longlasting, "full service" (not single-issue) parties if it wants to become a democracy.

Maybe Texas can secede from the US? Then you can build a real multi-party system in peace. And then Bush couldn't have done more than send the Texas National Guard to Iraq...

4:25 PM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

I hesitate to agree with you even though I kinda, sorta do. Becoming an actual party would give voters an easier way to identify themselves with some'one'. For now the issues of reform are the main common thread among independent voters. So yes, once in place, what would it be then? By its very nature, independents perhaps do not have as much clout as a 'group' as say, black or latino voters. Texas seceding haha. This is such a 'red' state I doubt it would happen. btw..a texas bumpersticker you'll see a lot, especially around Austin; Bush is NOT from Texas. (I think they're from Connecticut originally)
Ingrid

4:38 PM  

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