Some people have questioned the value of registering as an independent voter. They point to the fact that independents do not vote in the primaries. I quit a life-long membership in one major political party when I realized the depth of its corruption and the deception of its insider elitism. This deceit infects it, both here in Pennsylvania and at the national level.

We, the people, are the oxygen of political parties. Removing the oxygen kills a fire. Removing the people takes away the power of the party. You need only look at roiling of one of the major parties to see this in action.

George Washington warned us against political parties. He saw them as being formed in such a way as to pit one group of citizens against another. In his farewell speech in 1796 he said:

"They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community ... they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

Sadly, he was absolutely right. At the state and federal level, the major parties pit groups against each other through decisive legislative proposals. They harness the media to issue a perpetual stream of propaganda (studies) about how we, the people, fall short. They constantly highlight our differences with little or no reflection on what we have in common. Their one-upsmanship games are ruthlessly tearing the fabric of our sense of community and destroying our fundamental faith in each other.

It took the revolutionary patriots eight long years to break free of Great Britain. Snuffing out the 21st century tyranny of our corrupt political parties will not be quick victory, either. But we do not need to fire a bullet or suffer the misery of a winter at Valley Forge to break free. We just need to quit the major political parties. Blow out the fire of this political party corruption. Think for yourself. Be an independent voter.

Cynthia J. O'Hora,

Shamokin Dam