In my life, I’ve met many people who have views supporting both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but for some reason, very few are registered as or consider themselves to be a part of the Independent Party. Maybe this is because of the barrier between independent voters and the primary elections, or maybe they feel that their views are more backed up by being either a Democrat or Republican, but either way, people feeling a need to associate themselves with the strong left wings or strong right wings really seems to hinder our country’s progress.

In the past there have been scenarios where the president was from one party and our House and Senate consisted mostly of the opposing party. When a split like this occurs, it can cause unnecessary disputes about anything that needs approval from both the president, and the House and Senate. For example, at the end of Obama’s presidency, he had to choose a new judge to fill a position on the Supreme Court.

Because of the strongly opposing views, or at least the idea that they were present, a person who would’ve been a great addition to our Supreme Court was turned away. At the time we only had eight judges, and they were split four and four, Democrats and Republicans. The mostly Republican house and senate saw this as an opportunity to not allow our Supreme Court to become majority Democrat.

This caused our court to be incomplete for numerous months until our current president, Donald Trump, was officially inaugurated, and made his choice, which our House and Senate approved.

Another problem that comes from political parties is people assuming. If a person considers themselves to be a Democrat or Republican, they often assume that the candidate who is a part of their party has the same views that they do, which isn’t always the case. In an election, you just need to swallow your pride, and instead of voting for someone just because you both belong to the same political party, do your research and see which candidate actually does a good job at representing you and your beliefs.

Even if political parties weren’t totally discarded, not basing our votes on them would be a huge step in the right direction. Imagine if throughout an election, you had absolutely no idea which candidates were a part of which party. We would have no choice but to vote solely on what is said in interviews and debates. We wouldn’t have an option to be biased towards certain political groups. If our country did this, it could be very eye-opening for people.

Some already put a lot of thought into their votes and truly don’t only look at the party to which a candidate belongs, but others would find themselves having to do a lot more research and put much more effort into finding the person who they find best suited to lead our nation.

Sometimes our society overcomplicates things. Instead of always trying to be different from our historians, there are most definitely times when we instead need to learn from them. Many Americans are unaware of the fact that our first president, George Washington, actually didn't belong to the Democratic or Republican Party, but instead considered himself to be an Independent. This didn't stop him from helping our country to the best of his ability, so why do Independent candidates often get overlooked in today's elections?

At times, belonging to a specific group that tend to have specific beliefs can be better. It can give you people that you can communicate your thoughts and ideas to in a very agreeable environment, but sometimes being a part of group, such as the Independent Party, where your beliefs aren't always one hundred percent agreed upon, and you do get some different types of feedback can really help you to grow as a person and understand things from other perspectives.

I’m not saying I’m right in the middle on absolutely everything, because in all honesty, I personally tend to fall on the more liberal end of the spectrum, but there are definitely some debates in which I lean more towards the middle or conservative side of things.

If being an Independent voter in Pennsylvania didn’t automatically take away my right to vote in the primaries, I would definitely consider doing this once I turned eighteen, and I feel that many people are able to relate to this conflict.

Our country is never going to be a perfect place, and we will never all be totally on board with something, especially when it relates to politics, but I feel that eliminating the public’s knowledge of which political party a candidate associates him or herself with could really have a positive effect on future elections.

People will have to be much more knowledgeable about elections, and their own true beliefs, which I see as a way to make our country much more intelligent, and as a whole, much less divided.