I was born in the northeastern United States which is known as a hotbed for Democrats. Most of my family members are Democrats yet my parents are Republican and I used to be Republican until 10 years ago. However, I am not a Democrat. I am an Independent. There are many reasons why I left the Republican Party, but the main one was that the party left me. The party that I thought stood for limited government, lower taxes, character and leadership transcended through moral values and principle showed itself to be a party that didn't want to disrupt the status quo. The Republicans had majority rule in Congress for 12 years and did not keep many of their promises from the campaigns. They lost me as a voter when they spent so much time and energy on impeaching President Clinton than focusing on a real threat to this country: al-Qaeda. You know, if the Republicans and Democrats back then would have spent half as much time worrying about al-Qaeda as they did attacking each other, many of those innocent civilians who were killed on 9/11 might be alive today.

Whenever people find out that I am an Independent, there are some who will scoff and suggest that Independents don't stand for anything. That Independents lack courage to stand on their principles. Well, if anything, this more accurately describes the other two political parties in this country, not Independents. It is the Independent voters who form their opinions based on right and wrong, not right and left. The Democratic and Republican Party are too ensconched in their mutual dislike of each other in their quest for power. With Independents, they want the power for and to the American people because the people have the power. Many of them aren't aware of it, but they are the power because the United States of America was founded on the principles of self-government.

Every four years we have a presidential election in this country and without fail, most Americans complain about their leaders. Yet most of the time they will go back and vote for these people because they feel they are powerless and that nothing is going to change so why bother? They say that politicians are all liars and corrupt and they accept it. Well, call me crazy, but that kind of thinking is the antithesis of the leadership of days past which called for and insisted upon leadership and high standards. I don't know when it started, but not long ago it seems that America abdicated its desire and pursuit of excellence in exchange for quick fixes and mediocrity. We see it in our nation's public schools. We see it in some of our colleges and universities. We see it in some of our workplaces. We have become a nation of attention-seekers instead of success-seekers. Many Americans complain that they "don't have time" yet they somehow find the time to publicly capture on video their most embarrassing moments and upload them to the Internet for the whole world to see. We see it in our airports with security so lax that one wonders if LAX is aptly named. We see it in our culture today with athletes and celebrities who "push the envelope" which translates to doing whatever is possible to shock people for the sake of shock and offending as many people as possible. If these men and women wanted to push the envelope, they might try something really shocking like staying out of rehab, paying their taxes and not complaining about energy costs when they're jetsetting across the world.

I don't like the partisan panacea which has gripped our nation for the past decade, if not more. We have become bitterly divided by race, gender, religion and economics and if history has proven anything, it is that neither party has been able to bridge that gap. How can they realistically be expected to when they both spend so much time and money trying to destroy their opponents with personal attacks and smears? The Independents don't care whose idea it is if it is a good idea. If it is good, we will support it. Independents don't root for any party to fail, but if either one has an idea that we think will hurt the country, we will voice our opposition to it and do everything in our power through the democratic process to try to stop it.

The Democrats and Republicans seemingly every election year become "fiscal conservatives." Have you ever noticed that? Every campaign ad they refer to themselves as "fiscal conservatives." And in those campaign ads we see a small town with regular folks straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Yet many of these politicians are the same people who attack conservatives and conservatism. We witnessed this during the "Tea Party" protests earlier this year. Even the mainstream media got on the bandwagon by parroting the talking points of the far-left wing of the Democratic Party. If the Democrats and Republicans were such fiscal conservatives, why did they contribute to a bloating federal budget deficit over the last 10 years? Spending got out of control during the Bush years and it continues to get worse under Obama. We have a federal government that is not only too expansive, but too expensive. To quote the lyrics of a famous pop song: "I've seen the future; I can't afford it."

Some of you might be wondering what my views are. I don't have much time to describe them into full detail so I'll give you a brief rundown. One, I have faith in the private sector that they can and usually do a better job than the federal government with few exceptions. Two, issues such as gay marriage and abortion should not be decided by judges. Let the people vote on them and decide. Three, unless we learn from our mistakes pre-9/11, another terrorist attack on American soil will happen and it wil be more catrastrophic than 9/11. Last but not least, I want the wealthy to pay more taxes than anyone. That is why I support cutting taxes across the board for all Americans except I'd go one step further: eliminate the federal income tax and replace it with a national sales tax. I don't want to see any Americans losing their jobs with the exception of the IRS. Self-made men and women in this country who start off with nothing in a life mired in poverty who rise above it to make themselves millionaires or even billionaires should not be punished for being wealthy.

I want to see every American prosper regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation.