Didja Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

Massachusetts Independent voters are getting quite a bit of media coverage lately. There's the Boston Globe article State of Independents (read it quick before it self-destructs)
and Blue Mass. Group covers the Christy Mihos--will he, or won't he run as an Independent question and the potential fallout for Kerry Healey. sco over at .08 has some great analysis with nifty graphs.

Here in my town we have the same basic demographic breakdown of parties that have been reported elsewhere. We have slightly more Democrats here in Townsend, than Republicans, but the unenrolled, or Independent voters have both parties beat by at least twice as many more voters.

So what's the deal with these voters? I have come into contact with quite a few of these folks as I, along with my town committee get ready for the caucus on February 4. I'll start with my husband, who until recently was unenrolled. As long as I've known him, he has always voted Democratic, but he chose to remain unenrolled because he doesn't like politics and liked the idea that he didn't belong to either party.

I know someone who is running as a delegate in the February caucus who could not find a SINGLE friend who would be willing to change their affiliation so they could vote in the February caucus.

I'll admit it right now, these so-called Independent voters make my teeth itch. They remind me of the child's story where everyone wants to eat the bread, but nobody wants to help make it. Look, I get it -- I don't love everything about the Democratic Party either, but the solution is MORE involvement, not less, especially at the local, grassroots level.

Today in my e-mail I got this great message from Governor Michael Dukakis entitled What a Democratic Governor Can Mean for the Commonwealth. (hat tip to the Gloucester Dems website)

I like this part:

.it won't happen unless we Democrats begin to do what so many of you did for me back in the l980's—organize every single precinct in the state with a precinct captain and block captains and begin now to knock on doors, enlist our fellow citizens in the cause, turn them into precinct workers and contributors, and convince them that the Commonwealth can do a lot better than it has been doing for the past 15 years.

Indpendents -- get off the fence and get into the game.