Maine is the only one of the 50 states that borders on one (and only one) other state, and the only one with a single-syllable name. It produces 99 percent of America’s blueberries and 90 percent of its toothpicks. Maine is unique.

Many Americans assume the Pine Tree State’s southern border lies approximately eight hours north of Boston. They imagine ground that’s frozen eight months a year and covered with snow for six of them. For these people, the term “Mainer” conjures up images of quaint country bumpkins, toothless lobstermen and bearded woodsmen in snowshoes who emerge from their cabins every month or so to shoot a moose. A select few doctoral candidates in U.S. geography know we have beaches, but even they think the entire shoreline is owned by Martha Stewart and/or John Travolta. Maine is unique.

This state of affairs is just fine by those of us who aren’t looking for excuses to develop inferiority complexes. Let the rest of the country have their skyscrapers, their crowded highways, their National Football League franchises, their poisonous snakes, their fire ants, their polluted air, their corrupt politicians and scores of other “advantages” that don’t exist inside Maine’s borders. Let the rest of the country think we’re a bunch of rustics who live within shouting distance of Newfoundland and the North Pole.  

This November, 33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate are being contested. Most if not all of them will end up filled with either a Republican or a Democratic rump. America’s government is currently hamstrung, and the main culprits are the nation’s two mainstream political parties. Each is owned lock, stock and barrel by corporations, Wall Street, and/or a variety of other special interests.

Elected officials wishing to retain whatever power and influence they’ve accumulated too often kowtow unquestioningly to their sponsors. Fund-raising ”“ an exercise that is constant, ongoing, often odious, but absolutely necessary for those wishing to be re-elected ”“ is significantly less stressful for those who consistently dance to their party’s chosen tune(s). Nearly all proposed legislation in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives is generally approved or voted down along strictly partisan lines, since few elected officials in Washington wish to risk their current status for something as trifling as principle or independent thought. Some claim to be exceptions, but all too often nominal “moderates” who occasionally break rank with their party and vote with the opposition do so only when knowing well in advance their vote won’t make a difference when the final results are tallied. Unfortunately, Maine isn’t as unique in this regard as its two sitting United States senators would have us believe.

But while Democrats and Republicans nominally differ on many issues, they also have much in common. The first and foremost of these factors is self-interest. Each party’s movers and shakers enthusiastically do the bidding of the moneyed interests that bankroll them, and strongly encourage their followers to do the same. Both groups ceaselessly accuse each other of causing all of America’s woes, both real and imagined. But the biggest similarity between Democrats and Republicans is the desire to keep the current two-party system just the way it is. Both zealously guard their common trough, convinced, perhaps correctly, that it can’t accommodate any more than two voracious appetites.

California has more than 17 million registered voters; Texas has more than 13 million. There will never be a truly independent United States senator from a state with a large population; there’s simply too much money required for an unaffiliated candidate to launch a credible campaign there. But in a smaller, more unique state, the right unaffiliated candidate might stand a chance.

Fewer than one million registered voters live in Maine.

Angus King is running an independent campaign for the Senate this fall. He was elected governor in 1994, collecting 35 percent of the votes in a five-way race. Apparently, his bipartisan approach was a popular one; in 1998, he was re-elected with 59 percent of the vote, nearly doubling the combined totals of his Democratic and Republican opponents.

Once Maine’s Democrats have their nominee, they’ll undoubtedly begin publicly finding fault with King. They’ll claim he’s too chummy with big business, just as Republicans will take issue with his positions on abortion rights and taxes.

There are many good reasons to consider voting for Angus King this fall. But the best one may be this: Neither major political party wants a principled individual who is beholden to no one sitting in the United States Senate. It might start a trend. Imagine a legislative body composed of representatives more loyal to their constituents than they are to the interests of those ready, willing and able to bankroll their future campaigns.

Now that would be truly unique.

— Andy Young teaches in Kennebunk and lives in Cumberland.