What's an Independent to think, or is thinking allowed?

I read in the paper this morning that people in Washington are mad. They're mad because they have to pick a party when they vote for candidates in the Washington primary election. I guess the Washington State Grange is getting into the fight and hoping to get primary voting back to the pick-and-choose-your candidate style.

I couldn't believe a quote in the story where someone said the Grange ought to quit worrying about politics.

"How many times do the courts have to rule for the rights of the political parties before the Grange gets the message to go home?" he [Washington State Democratic chairman] said. "There's crops to be picked. It's time for the Grange to go home and be farmers." I had to go back and read that quote again to make sure I'd really read it correctly.

Washington State, because of a Federal Appeals Court ruling in 2003, recently went to a "pick your party ballot and stick with it" primary. The voters don't like it, and lately, they've been griping a lot to county officials. So, the Grange is fighting to overturn the new policy and return primary voting in Washington to the way it's been since 1934 where voters could cross over and vote for candidates from either party in primaries.

My first thought after hearing all the hoopla was to quit whining and "Get used to it. That's how we've had to do primaries here in Idaho throughout my voting life."

Then, I got to thinking that I've hated that policy every time I go to the polls for a primary election. Sometimes it's nice because if there are enough losers on one ticket, we can vote them out before they ever get to the general election. Sometimes, however, it's horrible because it promotes voting against losers rather than for winners we might like on the other ballot.

I've always believed that party affiliation does not make the candidate, especially at the local and regional level. We actually know these people as people long before we ever know the party affiliation they choose when trying to get elected. We have a pretty good handle on their abilities, their convictions and their talents in working with people. I believe that people with the right stuff can come from either party.

So, I hate to be denied the right to vote for one winner while at the same time ousting five losers. I think and hope our nation is made up of a lot more independent minds than of those who vote for Republicans or Democrats even if they're rotten fish. My question, after reading this article and hearing all the complaining as the Washington primary drew to a close, was how the state has seemed to manage its political affairs since 1934.

Seems like voters didn't complain about the past system nearly as much as they seem to be irked with the present system. It seems also, from reading quotes from both Republican and Democratic bosses in this article, that the change had much more to do with the party wishes than it did with the people's. Oddly enough, that's one place where the political parties seem to agree, but the ordinary people do not.

And, to tell the Grange members to go home, mind their own business and pick the crops. I still can't believe that I read that this morning. My Independent mind is confused.