There once was a time when being a political independent meant something.
If you were a political snob, it meant that you weren’t willing to take a side on an issue. You were a “wasted vote” because you didn’t vote for the candidates the political machine offered as choices. Republicans would tell you that if you voted for a third-party or independent candidate, you were casting a de facto vote for the Democrats. Democrats would say the same thing, only this time, you were sort-of voting for a Republican by voting independent.
But if you’re actually paying attention to the direction both parties are going, and you want to see real change in the American political machine, you know better — if you want a new vision and a new way forward, you can’t get that by voting for the same old options. Whether it’s Republican or Democrat, a vote for either side is nothing more than the same crap in a different-colored bag.
So when a candidate announces that he/she/it is running for a political office as an independent candidate in this day and age, you would hope that the individual actually IS independent of connections with either party. At the very least, you want them to have publicly disavowed any connection with the Republicans or the Democrats and to refuse any and all financial contributions to their campaigns. A TRUE independent can not have any potential influence-inducing skeletons in their closet that, if they are elected, would come back to reconnect with them and feed them back into the two-party machine.
For several months now, we have seen the alleged independent candidate for U.S. Senate, Dan Osborn, proudly trumpet his “independence” from being influence by either of the parties as he attempts to unseat current Sen. Pete Ricketts, who, as a card-carrying Republican, nobody will confuse with anything having to do with the word “independent.”
Osborn filed for the race as an independent, which he certainly has the right to. And if he were operating his campaign AS an independent, he would certainly be a worthy option for those looking for a non-machine option at the ballot box this November.
However . . .
If you do just a little bit of research into Osborn’s campaign, you’ll quickly see that Osborn is as much an independent as I am a Jewish rock guitarist.
Nineteen of the top 20 PACs that have donated to Osborn are Democratic-friendly organizations, including one that supports Sen. Elizabeth Warren (the Democrat from Massachusetts who claimed to have Indian heritage) and former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. He is also receiving support from noteworthy left-leaning groups as the National Education Association, League of Conservation Voters and End Citizens United.
If THAT is independent, somebody PLEASE slap me upside the head.
And lest we forget, Osborn is being supported by Jane Kleeb, who is the leader of the Nebraska Democratic Party. In fact, the NDP is throwing its support behind the alleged independent INSTEAD OF the woman who actually won the May primary for the party’s spot in the Senate race, Cindy Burbank. More than 110,000 Nebraskans voted for her in the May primary, and yet she is all but dead in the water because her party’s leadership would rather put its “muscle” behind an “independent” candidate that is being supported by this long list of left-leaning interests from outside Nebraska. It’s like your mom telling you she’s your favorite kid, and then blowing her Christmas shopping budget on your sibling.
And if you think the Democrats are the only party this desperate for attention at the ballot box, I’ve got news for you.
Earlier this week, a failed Republican has decided he wants to be our next governor and has declared that he will be an “independent” candidate for the position if he can clear all the legal hurdles to get his name on the ballot this November.
Former State Sen. Brett Lindstrom — a former backup Husker quarterback — is trying to get 4,000 signatures (including 750 in each of our state’s three congressional districts) so he can get on the ballot to challenge incumbent Gov. Jim Pillen and Democratic challenger Lynne Walz in the race for Nebraska’s governor.
Lindstrom ran against Pillen in the GOP primary in 2022 and, earlier this year, quit a race for a House of Representatives seat. He claims he is no longer part of the Republican Party and is trying to pull off the seemingly impossible task of beating a sitting governor and what is unquestionably the NDP’s strongest candidate for the job since Ben Nelson was governor more than two decades ago.
While I question his motives behind a run as an independent, the one thing Lindstrom has done, that Osborn won’t, is to disavow his membership as a Nebraska Republican. He abandoned the GOP label back in March, according to a story by the Nebraska Examiner, after withdrawing from the District 2 Congressional race earlier this year.
Those of us who don’t adhere to the marching orders of the two political monsters do have options to consider at the ballot box this November.
But be careful when you go to the polls — real independence is hard to come by in politics, and a little bit of research can tell you all you need to know about a candidate’s true allegiance.
SAYING you’re an independent and BEING one are sometimes as different as lightning is to the lightning bug.
