“Independent” is what students of semiotics call an “empty signifier,” a term that has very little, if any, substantive content. If you describe yourself as an independent, I still have to ask you additional questions about what you actually believe. All you’ve told me to that point is that you reject a party label (believe me, I sympathize). In short, calling yourself an independent says something — that you don’t like the party labels — but it isn’t a one-size-fits-all ideological or political signifier. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast.