[bert]

When the chips are down, in the booth...... to be relevant, an independent must decide for either the Republican or the Democrat candidate presidential candidate.

Any other course means the independent voter declares himself and his vote irrelevant. That is quite succinctly the way things are presently done in America. That is reality

[Finny]

When the chips are down, in the booth...... to be relevant, an independent must decide for either the Republican or the Democrat candidate presidential candidate. Any other course means the independent voter declares himself and his vote irrelevant.

PROOF that you are DEAD WRONG is the fact that Romney lost. My and millions of other otherwise-straight-Republican voters' third-party or non-votes were VERY RELEVANT. Romney LOST because of them, and because our third-party and our declined votes WERE so very relevant, the Republican party was prevented from moving even farther left. YOUR vote for Romney, bert, may have been intended to be "against" Obama, but in function and reality, your vote for Romney was solely a vote TO turn the Republican party left. OWN IT, please.