Excerpts from this issue's editor's note by Jacqueline Salit:

"By the time you read this note, the 2008 presidential primary and caucus season will have begun. What a relief! Finally, the election is in the hands of the voters. So perhaps this is a good moment to pause and think about our election process and some much needed reforms which have been blocked or stalled at the borders of the partisan political domain.

Oh no, you may be thinking. Not that again! Of course we need political reform - everyone knows that. But these issues just aren't sexy! They have no glamour, no drama, no emotion. Political reform is dry. It's not like money, sex and war, which excite our passions and compel our senses. Let's be frank. Political reform? It's a snore.

I consider myself a practical person and I think the independent movement is a practical movement. Yes, we have high ideals - if you think wanting a political system that isn't corrupt but is vibrantly democratic falls into the category of "high." To me it's more like "the way it's supposed to be." But I admit it's hard to get there, as even George Washington pointed out. He's crying on the cover because things didn't work out that way. He held the parties responsible in 1796 and so do the 40% of Americans who call themselves independents today.

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