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Our government isn’t serious
Congress is deadlocked. It struggles to pass any serious legislation. Our most important challenges, like healthcare, the deficit, and immigration get no serious treatment while members snipe at each other on X and cable television. Yet this is supposed to be their job.
And if you complain or suggest we can do better, toxic polarization among voters makes it impossible to have political conversations with those outside your own party. You’re a bigot or a snowflake, a socialist or a fascist if you disagree with someone.
Like most of my friends and colleagues, I’ve had enough.
But that doesn’t mean I am giving up.
I’m joining the Independent Center as president because I believe that our country can have thoughtful conversations about our values and priorities and how public policy supports or undermines them.
The solution
We can create a movement of people who put country over party. Now more than ever Americans are ready and looking for a way forward, and for new ideas that bypass the vitriol, hate and division that has become so extreme in the past decade.
Party identification is at its lowest level since Gallup began tracking it in 2004. In June, Gallup reported that only 23 percent of respondents identified as Democrats and 25 percent as Republicans. The majority, 51 percent, identified as independents.
If political participation requires wading into that quagmire, no wonder so many voters opt out. The problem with dropping out, however, is that we’re leaving politics to the people with the most extreme views. Because they’re the only ones willing to pay the price of participating in our incredibly dysfunctional system.
But there’s hope. We may not be able to get toxically polarized voters out of politics, but we can lessen their impact by encouraging more reasonable people to re-engage politically.
Why independents matter
Those reasonable people are political independents, and the Independent Center exists to help their voices be heard in a two-party political system that tends toward polarization. The Independent Center researches the values and priorities of independent voters. And we believe that these voters hold more nuanced and thoughtful views than party loyalists, which can turn down the temperature on heated political debates.
Independent voters want effective, fiscally responsible government that is tolerant of social differences. They supported Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020, and Trump in 2024 because they expect effective government, not government according to the precepts of a particular party. Independents split their tickets in the 2024 election because they don’t see either party as having a monopoly on good ideas.
My journey
I’ve seen how good public policy can make people’s lives better, and how poorly designed public policy, despite being well-intentioned can make people’s lives far worse.
I got my start in public policy by working for legal aid clinics as a graduate student. I saw a lot of well-intentioned policies negatively affect individuals, especially poor young people on the south side of the city who got caught up in the juvenile justice system.
I learned more about public policy doing public relations for research on regulation and education. Later, I decided to do my own research instead of promoting other people’s and earned a PhD in consumer psychology. I studied social perception and how people’s sense of identity, self, and in-group and out-group membership all affect how they see the world around them.
After 7 years as a marketing professor, I realized that what I really wanted to do was combine social psychology and marketing ideas to promote political participation and effective public policy.
A call to action
Even though I don’t love political parties, I do love our political process. And I love the empowered and potential we all have to make change happen. When people effectively govern themselves, it’s a testament to what humans can achieve together, even when they have deep differences in backgrounds, beliefs, and desires.
We can do better than our current political division and deadlocking. It starts with getting thoughtful people back into politics. And independents are going to lead the way. I hope you’ll join us, there’s never been a better time.
