no affiliation to what? a political group? when you say liberal, moderate, or conservative you're looking at a political ideology. so what im asking is: can i claim to have no political efficacy and be an independent? can i also have some sort of faith in the goverment and a democracy/republic and still be an independent? What if I think of myself as a liberal/conservative but don't belong to the democratic,republican, green, etc party? wouldn't i be an independent then also?