Articles by Jackie Salit

Now that the celebratory trashing (by Democrats) and overheated celebration (by Republicans) of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to suspend his independent presidential bid and back former President Donald Trump is in the rearview mirror, it’s time for an independent to sort this one out....

I. The marches in Bensonhurst are a distant memory for me. They were 30 years ago. I don’t recall many of the specifics, the details. We rode on busses to the Slave Theatre in Brooklyn and congregated there before heading to the site of the march, but most of it is a blur. Still, I do remember the feeling, the tension of being on those streets, of being part of a crowd of protesters who had come to lay down markers: The injustice stops here. As Yusuf Hawkins’ father, Moses Stewart, said plai...

Hello America! Hello my Brothers and Sisters! This campaign, this race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, has come to a critical point. A boiling point, some would say. And before we go any further, before voters in the next states cast their primary ballots and before the media casts its spin over the public, and before the kingmakers in the back rooms of the Democratic Party tell everyone that it’s over, I want to speak directly to the American people. Not just to Democrats. No...

Dear IVN Reader, ‍ For the holidays I give you this beautiful poem by my beautiful friend Dr. Jessie Fields.  A physician, a leader, a conscience and a poet, Dr. Fields is fierce and tender in all she does. You will be touched by her, by this poem. Happy Holidays. Be safe. Be Independent. Be loved. Jackie ‍ “Poetry: Forgive me for having helped you to understand that you are not made of words alone.” Roque Dalton ‍ Poetry Can Poems can so move the soul that tears flow And lengthen t...

I rarely give advice when it is unsolicited. But when you know someone, and you’ve had a history with them, and when the stakes are high and people are asking what you think, you make an exception. Thus, I’ve decided to offer some to Mike Bloomberg, who says he is considering a Democratic Party primary run for the presidency. I consider Mike a friend, whose campaigns for mayor of New York I helped to engineer—including running the Independence Party segment of his three mayoral bids. He and I (...

The Arizona Democratic Party voted down a resolution on September 21 to open the party’s presidential primaries in March to the state’s 1.3 million independent voters....

The Arizona Democratic Party voted down a resolution on September 21 to open the party’s presidential primaries in March to the state’s 1.3 million independent voters. It could well end up being a case of suicide by stupidity. The resolution was proposed by Adrian Fontes, the Maricopa County recorder, elected in 2016 to correct the many flaws, discrepancies and biases of the election system. A series of lies and distortions about the cost of the litigation needed to implement the resolution h...

The corruption of American politics is deep and stifling and it is producing levels of alienation and antagonism that are frightening....

I first heard the news that Ross Perot had died last Tuesday afternoon and it didn’t take long for the major media obituaries to appear. In public life in America, your obituary is written long before you die – literally and figuratively. Those of us who had been part of and partners with the Perot rebellion knew that the official “branding” of Ross Perot was already set in stone. The two-time independent presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996, whose millions of supporters sent a shockwave thr...