Independents

Few Spaniards realise that a socialist sits in the U.S. senate. Senator Sanders of Vermont describes himself as such, but was not a Socialist candidate. He has won elections as an independent since his first run for the mayoralty of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He's also served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a party-less animal, an anomaly, the exception that proves the rule.

There is another independent in the U.S. senate; there are independents in the U.K., Canadian and Australian parliaments. Some have left or been expelled from parties, others have eschewed party affiliation and nonetheless succeeded. Election-winning independents demonstrate that direct links with an electorate can be forged, and representative democracy served by representatives and the demos, without mediation.

In Spain, the only electoral mechanisms allowing for independents are the Senate and, in theory, municipalities where a single person serves as the council. Otherwise, the electoral system excludes human beings as biologically constituted--as individuals. Why?