Joining a political party is like joining a cult.

You’re thrown into a set of highly restrictive rules that cannot be trespassed or you face consequences of being a political pariah, being shunned and outcast from the party.

I am an independent. I do not affiliate with any political party; not the Democrats, Republicans, nor the Libertarians.

The reason for this being that I do not want to be drafted into a cult where conformity and closed mindedness are valued above innovation and acceptance. Contrary to what most believe, both Democrats and Republicans do this.

This creates numerous problems.

Ever wonder why in a nation that encounters thousands of issues and has a population of more than 350 million, it can only come up with two possible solutions for said issue?

Ever think that this might be because we are split evenly between two political parties that tell us exactly what to think and how to think it? We never stop to question whether or not there is a third or fourth solution because each political party only comes up with one solution for us to side with.

Democrats will of course accuse Republicans of being intolerant bigots, and of course the Republican response is a meme depicting a livid teenage woman screaming “I am tolerant, agree with me or else you racist, sexist, homophobic etc…”

I have heard Republicans tell people that “Democrats want to you think like them, we just want you to think,” until of course you start thinking that gays can be married and women have the right to have an abortion; then Republicans will also want you to think like them.

See, this was me not very long ago. I was a Republican and as a Republican I thought and acted the part. I believed that our wars were justified in the name of spreading democracy to the world and believed that Republicans were the good guys, Democrats were the bad.

After a while though I registered as a Libertarian. Soon thereafter my political views shifted once more when the war in the Middle East became nothing more than the colonization of foreign land for the purpose of militaristic supremacy.

I finally realized that when I switched political affiliations I tried my best to fit in with that new party. I compromised my beliefs in the name of conformity to a higher, and even corrupt, power. This is the inherently dangerous nature of political parties.

This country was founded upon the values of individuals, not political parties. We were founded by the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Since then we have been systematically undermined by the partisan system of politics.

If we truly seek to be strengthened as a nation, then why shouldn’t we embrace the value of individualism as our founding fathers did?

Abandon the idea of partisan politics, put down the Kool-Aid and leave the cult.