Personally I"m a moderate republican. That isn't the same as "don't have opinions on the issues" in my case there are simply issues where I go the other way.

I hold a slightly different opinion of "independents" as they seem to be willing to give up their ability to vote in a number of instances to avoid even slightly applying a label to themselves. I find low knowledge of politics often runs high in the crowd.

However I can see where people who follow the party line come from. The issues are different. But often correlated. (For example someone who strongly supports 2nd amendment rights is likely to be more Hawkish. People who want to ban abortion will often want to ban gay marriage. People who don't want to put the environment before business probably support lower taxes etc).