In this election, one forest that was missed was the 40 percent of Americans who disalign from the Democrats and Republicans and call themselves independents.

Did independent voters make a mark in Iowa on Tuesday, as they did so conspicuously for the insurgent Barack Obama in 2008? And, do the Iowa results provide us with new insight into the aspirations of this mass of anti-partisan Americans?

Republican presidential candidates blamed President Obama for the downgrade. In so doing they demonstrated the very hyper partisanship that so concerned the S&P analysts.

Independents have made it plain enough that they don't like partisanship, they don't like ideological dogmatism and they don't like.... well, parties. Even if they vote for them.

STATEMENT BY JACKIE SALIT, PRESIDENT IndependentVoting.Org "If President Obama wants to rebuild his standing with independent voters, the compromise ...

The parties are so deeply embedded in government and in the structure and design of America's electoral process that they never have to justify their existence to voters. But shouldn't they have to?

Right now, it's very hard for the American people to express themselves. The media has molded politics into a blood sport. Independents are trying to make a statement about all of that.

This week I filed an amicus brief in an appeal that seeks relief from discriminatory deadlines imposed on independent candidates.

MoveOn.org should "move in" with the progressive wing of the independent movement. Together we can fix our democracy by backing the structural political reforms which give power to the people, not to the parties.

Gone are the days when independent voting was the province of the "conservative white male." It's estimated that more than 20% of the independents who voted for Obama are people of color.