“If President Obama wants to rebuild his standing with independent voters, the compromise tax package is a small step, mainly because it shows he’s willing to take on his own party,”

Name a problem — poverty, war, out-of-control spending. The political parties offer themselves as the solution to all of the above, and more. We respond by voting for first one party, then the other, then back again. We want to let the world know we are unhappy, but we haven’t yet developed the creative capacity to rearrange the world around us.

This week I filed an amicus brief in an appeal that seeks relief from discriminatory deadlines imposed on independent candidates. Colorado state representative Kathleen Curry is the plaintiff in the case.

Independents, now more than forty percent of the American electorate, are challenging the domination of our politics and government by the two major parties. They seek full participation and structural solutions to the hyper-partisanship...