Geez D, what a softball Slam!
Nah, your observation in fact was very well said. For whatever the reason, most independants (I'll include the LP in that) are driven in some cases by single or handful of issues and others driven off a whole agenda but overall they all share a common thread of being driven by principle.
In many cases, these principles are often radically different (at least in appearance) from the status quo and people generally don't like radical change. Look at the overall reception given by either party to say Ron Paul for example or Dennis Kuchinich. In the case of Paul, if you hate taxes, hate gov't, what to put the military on the border to stop immigration, end Federal control of education and let locals put God back into the schools if you will, etc. Paul is a dream come true. Kuchinich if you really believe in certain forms of welfare and gov't involvement, a force to challenge corp. control of gov't and really believe the so-called democrat party anti-war even anti military stand (a bit of myth I might add) then Dennis is your dreamboat candidate. But when the votes were counted, they both together didn't have enough voters to win a dog catchers contest so what does that say about the principles of the American people as a whole?
We'll scream and bellyache about the current problems and point fingers all day long but when given the chance to do something different, we seem to never walk that path. There is a belief in what is known as the beaten spouse syndrome in which an abused spouse will not depart an abusive home out of fear of the unknown as at least in his/her situation they've conditioned themselves mentally to live within the situation at hand rather than face the fear of doing something different. It's a belief in security even though it comes with a heavy price. We voters are really IMO much that same way.
Robert Kagan, a founder of Project for A New American Century and contributor to such NeoConservative icons as the Weekly Standard wrote a piece for the publication World Affairs that has got quite a few folks upset. The article is called NeoCon Nation: NeoConservatism, c. 1776' and makes a strong case historically that what the NeoCons are doing now is not new but in fact a tradition that has transcended through our gov't over the years and you know what, he's right! Kagan, in a real sense holds up a mirror to our society and sez, "we have found the enemy and the enemy is us!" And I think some of that comes from the voter playing the abusive spouse again.
People today scream at conservatives for laying claim to those who oppose the war for being unpatriotic and I too object to that line of thinking but what is interesting is the fact that it was a democrat icon President who at one time made it a crime to condemn US war policy up to and including deportation. The President was Woodrow Wilson, the war WW1 obviously and the law was the Espionage Act of 1917' and the Sedition Act of 1918'. During the period over 170,000 people were arrested and many deported. Even the US Post Office refused to ship any material critical of the war effort at the time so as wrongheaded as some are today with their claims of unpatriotic, commie and all that crap, it can't hold a candle to some of the stuff Wilson, a democrat, did. And less we not forget Lincoln or FDR either (spread the party wealth)and this goes to the heart IMO of Kagan's point to some extent.
It's a lenghty piece, I won't kid you at all on that but it's well worth the read and although some who travel in my political belief circles are enraged at Kagan asserting that in reality we are all NeoCons, I for one applaud his voice and appreciate his willingness to in many respects state a very obvious truth that many "NON" NeoCons want to deny. God Bless him for holding up that mirror and IMO pointing the obvious.
https://web.archive.org/web/2008061...fairsjournal.org/Spring-2008/full-neocon.html