The Time Has Come: Independent Voters Can Restore Precision to Politics

In the quiet village of Le Solliat, in the heart of Switzerland’s Vallée de Joux, lives Philippe Dufour, widely regarded as the world’s greatest living watchmaker. The photograph below captures him at his bench, meticulously crafting a gear entirely by hand in his modest atelier.

Philippe Dufour, one of the greatest living watchmakers, handcrafting precision gears in his Le Solliat workshop, Switzerland. Image from Alamy.

After years working for major luxury brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet, and Gérald Genta, Dufour walked away. The Swiss watch industry had begun to change, shifting heavily toward Madison Avenue-style marketing and large-scale industrial production. He refused to take part in that shift or let it erode the soul of watchmaking: the precision, hand-finishing, and artistry that had always defined the craft.

In 1978, he founded his own independent manufacture, vowing never again to create watches under someone else’s name. He produces only a handful of watches each year, sometimes as few as 8 to 15, all crafted personally or with the smallest possible team. His iconic Simplicity model, launched in 2000 and inspired by the golden age of 19th-century Vallée de Joux watchmaking, was initially planned for just 100 pieces. Demand eventually led to around 200, still an astonishingly limited run in an industry now dominated by scale.

Dufour has always believed that the soul of a watch lives in its internal mechanism, hand-finished to obsessive standards. He proved that if that mechanism fails, no amount of marketing or hype can make the watch keep time.

Our political system suffers from the same affliction. We have lost the soul of governance, the mechanism meant to debate fiercely, deliberate honestly, and ultimately deliver for citizens. Instead, the two-party duopoly rewards flashy campaigns, partisan scoring, and mass-produced messaging over effective, principled results, leaving voters to choose a brand and hope for the best.

But now times have changed, and the largest voting bloc in America is Independent voters. At roughly 45% of the electorate, they hold the power to influence and reshape the political system. Like Philippe Dufour leaving the big brands to build something more accurate and finer in his own atelier, Independent voters, those who value substance and progress over partisan brand loyalty, can step forward and deliver finer precision to our government.

Rather than settling for the role of swing voters, delivering short-term electoral shifts with little lasting progress, Independents can lead the charge: supporting bipartisan-minded candidates, advocating for proven electoral reforms, and joining organized advocacy efforts to heal our fractured nation.

The Gears of Reform

Below is the Independent Voter Plan of Action, a clear, step-by-step guide to restoring precision and integrity to American politics. Your participation can drive meaningful change toward more accountable and effective governance.

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These are not the best of times, nor the worst, but these are undoubtedly Independent Times.