Basic Trope: Fictional politicians without a stated party affiliation.
- Straight: Senator Polly Ishan's party is never mentioned.
- Exaggerated:
- Whenever Senator Ishan's party is about to be revealed, they cut away or drown it out with a convenient sound effect.
- Even though the work features multiple major political parties (fictional or otherwise) and every important character is a politician, none of them has a known party affiliation.
- Downplayed: While Senator Ishan's party is never stated, it's pretty obvious from her political views, her actions, the way other characters treat her, and the like.
- Justified:
- Senator Polly Ishan really doesn't have any political party, even avoiding calling herself "independent".
- Senator Polly Ishan is in the midst of transitioning between parties.
- Inverted: No politician in the story is ever mentioned without stating their party.
- Subverted: Senator Polly Ishan's party goes unknown, but than we learn it.
- Double Subverted: Turns out that was wrong.
- Parodied:
- Senator Polly Ishan is listed as "Ishan, Rhode Island, 'we don't know.'"
- Senator Polly Ishan's political views transgress those espoused by several parties, even contradicting themselves at times. She does reveal her party several times, but each time a different one, so much that no one could be sure she's associated with anyone, doubled by the fact that no party is willing to lay claim to her.
- Zig-Zagged: Senator Polly Ishan runs for several weeks without revealing her party. She finally announces which party she's a part of, but it turns out she got her facts wrong. She then corrects herself, but then announces that she has decided to part from the party. She then runs without a party before finally creating her own party.
- Averted:
- Senator Polly Ishan always says her party in every line.
- Senator Polly Ishan is always listed as "Sen. Polly Ishan (Cyan Party)".
- Enforced:
- The creators have to avoid political statements that might alienate a large portion of the audience.
- If your country in Real Life has a non-multi-party system, most of all fiction (at least from the United States) that involves politics will be censored.
- Polly Ishan is a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of a politician who has never been known to be associated with any party.
- Lampshaded: "Senator, exactly what is your party affiliation?"
- Invoked: Senator Polly Ishan hopes to appeal to a wider demographic by not revealing herself to be in any one political party.
- Exploited: Senator Ishan's challenger accuses her of being so wishy-washy, no political party would actually accept her, as opposed to his clear political leanings.
- Defied: Polly asserts her partisanship and/or ideology before she seeks a Senate position.
- Discussed:Alice: That Polly Ishan isn't saying to what party she belongs.Bob: There Should Be a Law requiring such.
- Conversed: "Politician characters shouldn't be able to get away with hiding their party affiliations this late in a campaign, especially since they never bother with that in real life."
- Implied: Ishan is the only Senator whose party membership isn't listed in a roll call taken at Senate meetings.
- Deconstructed: Polly Ishan falls behind in the polls because she can't give anybody a compelling reason to vote for her.
- Reconstructed: The parties, party system in general, or both are highly unpopular and so her favourability rises again due to her lack of clear ties to such disliked institutions.
- Played for Laughs: Polly Ishan is the show's Idiot Hero, she believes in the most risible ideas associated with each party, and the creators use this to make a Running Gag out of her unknown affiliation.
- Played for Drama: Senator Polly had no chance of getting votes as a third-party candidate in two- or one-party system(s) and was better off not telling anyone her party affiliation at all.
- Played for Horror: It turns out that Polly Ishan has no party because she is a Reformed, but Rejected Serial Killer who's been blackballed from every party in the country.
- Intended Audience Reaction: Polly Ishan's lack of a partisan affiliation or any ideological leanings is meant to make viewers interrogate their own biases.
You can cast your vote at No Party Given, but I have no clue what side each candidate's on.
