Independent voters should not be silenced in primary elections

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent voters should not be silenced in primary elections (Jeremy R. Stinson, Gazette.Net Maryland Community News Online) Independent voters in the IndependentVoting.org network — a national association of independents with organization in 40 states — are spearheading a campaign to persuade Congress to hold hearings on the second-class status of Independents and to shed light on the ways that partisanship has become so hard-wired into the political process, the American people can’t be heard.
• Poll: Independents Are Angry, Despairing (By Steven Shepard, National Journal) Twenty-nine percent of respondents have “a lot” or “some confidence” that the federal government will make progress over the next year on the most important problems facing the country. But among independents, just 18 percent express that level of confidence. A whopping 80 percent of independents say they have “not much confidence” or “no confidence at all” in the federal government to make progress next year.
• Anger With Congress Reaching New Levels (By Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic) In recent decades, the closest America has come to a true "throw the bums out" election was the scandal-shrouded, recession-colored redistricting year of 1992, when 13 Republican and 30 Democratic House incumbents were ousted and another 65 members retired. This survey highlights the possibility that incumbents in both parties could face similar risks in 2012, another redistricting year shaped by economic and political discontent.