Are Independents people that....?

They are unprincipled people who are incapable of making a decision based on anything other than what is happening right now.

The answers given by both Jennifer and Foghorn get to most of what I think.

I'm a Libertarian and I have no trouble seeing the point of view of those who seek to belong to no party.

It's those who willingly, cheerfully belong to either of the major parties I don't get.

It's absurd and completely indefensible to suggest that there is any significant difference between the 2 major parties. Each overspends, each lies (all the time about everything) and each refuses to address serious issues like government debt at all levels.

Anyone watching television and/or listening to talk radio for any of their news and information can conclude that there somehow is a difference between the 2 major parties. Anyone who has half a brain, who does read something now and then knows better to watch television and/or listen to talk radio. Those people often are independents and it means they aren't parrots.

Those willfully affiliating with either the Democratic Party or Republican Party are parrots, and they are crapping all over our Republic which is meant to protect the individual, something members of the 2 major parties never can comprehend.

Not a matter of liking or disliking conflict. It is a matter of intellectual honesty. The Independent recognizes that both sides have some good ideas and both sides have some bad ideas. The intellectually honest person evaluates all ideas, embraces the good, rejects the bad without concern for which side came up with the idea.

The partisan on the other hand tends to embrace whatever idea (good or bad) his side represents, and rejects and vilifies any ideas coming from the other side without bothering to do an honest evaluation of those ideas. Is that not a accurate depiction of intellectual dishonesty?

As a Libertarian, which I assume makes me an independent to you, I can tell you that I do not like the repubs and I detest the dems. There are times where I have to vote for a repub over a libertarian (often there is not a candidate in the race) and it makes me sick.

There is no way in the world that I could ever vote for a dem given their track record of disasters.

Both parties have screwed up so badly that I believe that a third party will rise within the next decade and it will be much more fiscally responsible and actually protect the rights of citizens.

The problem with your question is that it assumes there is always only two choices.

Your presumption is that there are republicans and democrats, AKA liberals and conservatives, and everyone else is independent.

An independent has his own views on any given issue and doesn't toe a party line.

I'm an independent because anyone who is so certain as to what position they are going to take without ever even considering all sides is someone who has given up the ability to think for themselves. The "you're either this way or that way" strategy in politics has served to divide for far to long. We independents are the ones sitting right in the middle of that divide and, if it weren't for us, that divide would only grow.

I'm a condindtarian.

I'm partly independent because blindly following any political party is the ultimate measure of idiocracy.

I agree with right. Any politicaly party can be right sometimes. None can be right all the time.

Independents are free thinkers. I don't think it has anything to do with avoiding conflict.

they're morons who think they're above it all but in reality have no clue about politics whatsoever.

Independents have no testicles.