Opinion: The virtue of independence in a time of hyperpartisanship

In 2025, America feels like a house divided into two hostile camps. From Washington, Donald Trump and his loyalists thunder daily, marshalling grievance into political fuel. In Sacramento and San Diego, Democrats reign supreme, holding every office and legislative supermajorities so entrenched that opposing views have been exiled. Each side insists it alone holds truth, virtue and the right to rule.

There is another way.

As an independent voter in California, I find refuge — and strength — in belonging to neither tribe. I am one of millions who have chosen to register without party affiliation. In that choice lies not weakness, but freedom.

Thomas Jefferson once observed, “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever. … If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” Prescient, indeed.

To bind oneself completely to a political party is to submit to its contradictions and hypocrisies. The Democrat who venerates more government but sidesteps California’s failing public schools and crushing cost of living. The Republican who ostensibly champions liberty but justifies authoritarian impulses from the White House. Both parties twist themselves to excuse what they once condemned. We see it in the blatant pretense of California’s Proposition 50, a cynical response to other states’ own mendacity, itself a response to yet other cynical ploys that undermine our values as Americans. We see it in the push and pull over free speech. In a democracy that grows weary from tribal warfare, independence can be an act of public service and personal liberation.

Partisanship demands loyalty even when honesty demands dissent. It requires excuses when accountability is due. To be a partisan is to live in intellectual bondage. Frederick Douglass, who knew real slavery, said, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” For independents, knowledge and integrity are keys that unlock the shackles of party dogma. To fall in line is to surrender one’s citizenship to a machine convinced it cannot be challenged. Independents live in the space between. Millions of Americans register “No Party Preference” as a deliberate act of rebellion against the insidious decline of civic fidelity.

George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address, warned that, “the spirit of party … serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration.” He foresaw that partisanship could lead to despotism of the majority or the demagogue. In California, we see the former; in national politics, the latter.

Independence is a discipline. It means refusing to let parties think for you, judging policies on merit, not on authorship. It accepts that wisdom can come from unexpected places and that virtue belongs to neither “red” nor “blue.” To stand apart from party is not to stand alone. It is to stand with facts, reason and honesty. Abraham Lincoln reminded us that, “nothing is settled that is not right.” Living by that principle requires the freedom to change one’s mind when new evidence arises — a freedom that party loyalty rarely allows.

It isn’t easy. Partisans demand we pick a jersey, chant slogans and boo the “enemy.” To think for oneself amid the noise of polarized media and loyalty tests requires courage indeed. Independence is liberating because it carries no debt. I owe nothing to the Democratic monopoly in Sacramento or to Trump’s disciples in Washington. My loyalty is to the Constitution, to my neighbors and to truth as best I can discern it.

The American experiment was never about party supremacy. It was about liberty, common cause and self-government. As the late Sen. John McCain implored: “We are Americans first, Americans last and Americans always. Let us argue over differences, but let us recognize that loyalty to party ends where loyalty to country begins.”

The virtue of independence is the companion of freedom. Being unaffiliated is not a lack of identity; it is the refusal to be a pawn. When we act together, we remind politicians — and the two major parties — that their duty is to govern a whole people, not to please the extremes. Jefferson, Washington, Douglass, Lincoln and McCain warned us of blind allegiance. As our nation’s 250th anniversary approaches in 2026, may we be guided by their wisdom.

Bolthouse is a nonprofit consultant and a San Diego resident since 1997.