The history, the hurdles, and what regular people can do about it.
America has two giant political parties, and most elections are built around them. But there's a long American tradition of people who said: neither one speaks for me. That tradition is the independent movement — and it's older than you might think.
The facts first. In 1992, businessman Ross Perot ran for president as an independent and won nearly 19 percent of the popular vote — the strongest third-party showing in generations — campaigning on the national debt and trade. In 1968, George Wallace ran as an independent and carried five states. Ralph Nader's Green Party run in 2000 drew intense debate about its effect on that razor-close election. Going further back, Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose run in 1912 split the Republican vote and finished second nationally — ahead of the sitting president.
Independents also serve in Congress today. Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine were elected as independents. Dozens of governors, mayors, and local officials have won outside the two parties. The pattern is consistent: independents rarely win the presidency, but they regularly win legislative and local offices, and their campaigns push issues the big parties would rather ignore.
So why is it hard? The biggest hurdle is ballot access. Each state sets its own rules for getting on the ballot, and for independents that usually means collecting thousands of valid voter signatures — sometimes tens of thousands — by strict deadlines, with strict rules about who can sign and how petitions are verified. The two major parties get on the ballot automatically; everyone else has to earn it signature by signature. That's not an accident of history — it's a wall, and climbing it takes organization.
This is where Alexander's story fits, and he'll tell you himself: he runs as an independent because he believes both parties answer to donors and party machinery first, and to regular people second. 'Not left. Not right. Forward.' It's not a slogan about splitting the difference — it's a claim that working people's interests don't fit on the old left-right line, and that an independent can vote on each issue by what's right for the district rather than what the party demands. You don't have to agree with him on every issue to understand the logic: no party boss, no party whip, no fundraising machine calling the shots.
Now — what can ordinary people actually do? More than most realize. You can sign and circulate ballot-access petitions (in many states, that signature is literally what puts an independent on your ballot). You can attend town halls and ask direct questions — elected officials notice who shows up. You can become a poll watcher or election worker and see democracy up close. And you can run for local office yourself: school board, city council, county commission. Those races need no party machine, cost little to enter, and — as we learned in Week 17 — decide the things that shape your street, your schools, and your wallet.