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The annihilation of political independence
While Sen. Arlen Specter of Penn-
sylvania has showed our two-party system the
power one individual can have by switching his
allegiance from Republican to Democrat, the
system struck back last week when Democrats
decided that Specter would
not get to keep all of the trap-
pings of seniority he had ac-
cumulated over the years.
Why? Because just as he
did as a Republican, Specter
showed a little independence.
Sen. Specter no longer
felt comfortable in the Re- A.C.
publican Party. As one of KLEINHEIDER
the party’s more moderate
members, he was unlikely to win his upcoming
primary. With no ideological or political reason
to stay in the party, he left. What is unfortunate
about his situation was that he felt the need to
align with the Democratic Party and not simply
declare himself Independent. Because, while in
many ways Specter was no longer a Republican,
he’s not really a Democrat either.
That much was clear when, after his party
switch, he revealed that he still held hope that
his moderate Republican friend Sen. Norm
Coleman would somehow overturn his general
election loss. Specter apologized for his faux pas
by offering that he had “forgotten what team
he was on.” Indeed, he had. Specter had sub-
consciously assumed that as a statesman of long
standing, he was bigger than the party system.
Of course, now more than ever, the party sys-
tem seems quite insistent on showing us that no
one man is above the system.
True political independence, whether
nominally inside a party or not, seems to be a
commodity of declining value. Even as more
Americans and Tennesseans say they identify
with neither party, parties themselves have
become more partisan, demanding lockstep
loyalty from their members.
Nowhere is this transformation more
evident than in Tennessee. Tennessee has tra-
ditionally had very independent politics. While
true elected Independents are rare, our majority
parties have long shown an ability to handle
dissent within their ranks. In Tennessee, we
have had very conservative Democrats and very
moderate Republicans. Members of each party
could work with and even support each other
and be respected for doing so.
Not so much anymore. One can hardly
observe Arlen Specter’s recent maneuvering be-
tween the parties and not be reminded of Ten-
nessee’s recent victims of partisanship.
Sen. Mike Williams, a veteran Republi-
can member of the legislature, saw his party
MONDAY May 11, 2009 23
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bonafides questioned after he showed some per-
sonal loyalty to Speaker John Wilder by casting
his Speaker’s vote for the elder statesman. Sub-
sequently alienated from the Republican Party
even after another vote for Speaker in which he
voted for the GOP nominee, Williams declared
himself an independent in 2007. But without a P r oc e e d s B e n e f it
party machinery explicitly behind him, he lost The Julian T. Fouce
to his former party’s nominee, Mike Faulk. Music Therapy Fund
Williams may have ‘grown’ a bit in office, as
they say, but he was not a fundamentally differ-
ent politician than when he had an “R” next to
name. But because he bucked the party, he was
boxed out. Mike Williams proved that a man Ex clus ively P r es ent ed By
without a party was, very quickly, a man with-
out an office.
Same goes for former Sen. Rosalind Ku-
rita. The state Senator from Clarksville never
explicitly declared her independence from the
Democratic party, but after her vote for Lt. Gov.
Ron Ramsey in 2007, she may as well have. For
her one vote of conscience, Kurita was rewarded www.anatrajew e l .com 615 . 3 52 . 9 69 6
with a primary opponent who was installed
as the nominee even after losing an election.
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Her principles and polices hadn’t changed, but
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because she didn’t fall in with either party, she
wound up in the middle and paid the price for it.
B O A
It will be interesting to see how our two-
P ON GB
US
O
party system deals with the state’s most recent
defiant one, Speaker Kent Williams. Seeing
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Republican House Leader Jason Mumpower
as too partisan, Williams decided to collude
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Kleinheider is NashvillePost.com’s political 1st Cumberland Auction 615-747-5800 • www.1stcumberlandauction.com
TN FL #5375 TN AL #1595
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