It has been widely rumored – and as rumors go – this one is likely to turn true- that B. Thomas Golisano is going to change his voter registration within the next few days - from Independence to the Republican Party.

Some people are scratching their heads over this. They think, “after all, Golisano founded the Independence Party. How can he leave his long cherished ambition of reform?” Some – most likely those who fear the giant promise of the man – perhaps a political opponent, or his allies – will castigate him for this.

“Golisano changed,” they’ll say. “Shows unstable temperament.” After all, Elliot Spitzer never changed. He is Democrat once and for always – a Democrat through and through. Maybe that’s admirable. Knowing what you are from infancy. Young Hillary Clinton, after all, was registered a Republican in college. She switched in 1960 to Democrat. "But Golisano is more than 60," they’ll say. "Doesn’t he know yet what he is? How inconsistent."

Forget that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” That is not the rebuttal.
Forget that, like Coriolanus, some men are so big, that whatever side they are on – they are likely to win. They are bigger than the change they make. Indeed they are the change. And forget that personal evolution – makes changes within men.

I have seen some men who dared to say they knew all of eternity, and the promises thereof - in their boastful youth – and then soften to an ardent, yet sympathetic agnosticism as the shadows deepened. And vice- versa.

Sometimes men of integrity do switch, whether in the realm of ideals, or philosophy, or in the idealistically muddied water of membership in political parties. But forget that. It is not relevant to Golisano. What’s relevant is that politicians switch. And Golisano- although completely unique amongst them- is a politician.

So we say it all: Golisano’s reason for party switching – when he does switch- which he will - is political success: To get elected governor of the state of New York. He'll switch and run for governor. Switching will improve his chance of winning.

Of course, in part, to quell the history- challenged among his critics, let me add that Golisano won’t be the first to do such kind of party switching.

By way of example:

** John Quincy Adams switched from the Federalist Party – the political party of his father, John Adams (2nd president of the US) - to the Democratic- Republican Party in 1808. After switching, Quincy Adams became 6th president of the US, in 1825.
By the way, Adams switched parties again after leaving the White House - to run for a seat in the House of Representatives. He was elected to the House, as a member of the Whig Party, in 1830.

** Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the US, switched from the Whig to the “Know Nothing” Party in 1856. He seems to have lived up to the name of his party as he railed against Lincoln and supported the ideals practically of maintaining slavery.

** Abraham Lincoln was a member of the Whig Party, until he switched to the Republican Party in 1856. His reasoning was simple: The Whig Party was splintered and weak, and Lincoln knew he could not expect to win state- wide election, let alone the Presidency as a Whig. Four years later he became the 16th president of the US.

** Theodore Roosevelt, going in the opposite direction as Golisano, switched from Republican to his own, independent “Bull Moose” party in 1912. But TR lost the election for president to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

** Ronald Reagan switched from Democrat to Republican in 1962. Then became governor of California, and later US President.
So, when you hear the shrill voices accusing Golisano of abandoning his reform roots, of switching parties- and how inconsistent that is-- remind them of Reagan, and Adams, or Lincoln.
Lincoln simply knew he could not put is ideals across without getting elected. He knew as a Whig he could not get elected. He could stay consistently a Whig, and slavery could stay consistently a law of the land.

Golisano is, and always has been against Albany’s choke hold on the people of New York State. He could stay an Independence Party member, and consistently rail against it - unelected. Or he can join the Republican Party and win election as governor of New York, then reform- both the State and perhaps the Republican Party, itself.

You can trim the leaves of a dying tree, it is said. But to save it, you need root and branch pruning. Golisano is a root and branch reformer. He is merely taking a practical path.

His life story is a lesson in the honest man rising, in his capturing the quintessence of the American dream. Witness his rise, as did the olden heroes, practically from log cabin to Mansion. He rose from poverty to astonishing wealth- and made others rich alongside him. Therein lays the secret of his greatness - in the many he made millionaires alongside himself. Then next came the life of civic activism and quiet charity. He has given more than 60 million dollars in a single year to the causes he holds dear. Quietly. He is a great man without elected office. And yes, he started the Independence party. He believed in and loved the ideals it began with. But there is more to do.
There are some men who have so many deeds to accomplish that to compress them all in one lifetime is a task in itself. They are the ones who are given the tools for their work and sometimes, very often, it seems, they act in ways that are not easy for the complacent to understand.

These will be his critics. Golisano is switching parties to accomplish his ideals. Republicans will gain immensely from this. Like Coriolanus, his presence alone may make them winners where otherwise colossal defeat was written in the pages of their future, in Albany, at least.
Whether from Whig to Republican, or from Independence to Republican, from Lincoln to Golisano, switching parties can be not only successful, and honorable, but even necessary, for men of action. For the cravens, with their hobgoblin minds- let them bark at his change.

"Know that," as the Asian proverb goes, “the elephant (whether symbolically Republican or not) walks through the marketplace. Invariably numbers of dogs bark after it, but he cares not. No, the elephant goes straight on his way.”

Tom Golisano- man of integrity, purity, leonine courage, follows the footsteps of the men of ideals, and goes straight on his way.

He will be hard to beat.