Democrat or Republican?

[HollyS]

Date: 1/19/2009 1:11:06 PM
Author: movie zombie

Date: 1/18/2009 12:44:41 PM
Author: miraclesrule

Date: 1/18/2009 12:31:16 PM
Author: movie zombie
heavy sigh: the only choices are Dem and Rep? me, i''m Green.

movie zombie

And you wear it well!

I switched from the Green Party to the independent after I was disenfranchised during the primary from being able to vote between Hillary and Obama.

I hadn''t even remembered that I previously switched to Green Party from my prior Independant Party registration.

sometimes i cheat and change registration so i can effect the primary....then switch back to Green.

movie zombie

I do, too! But I don''t consider it cheating; it''s strategy. And it works. Sometimes it''s because of who''s running in a more local race in that primary; I hate how they put those races on the same day as a national election.

 

[HollyS]

Date: 1/19/2009 1:11:51 PM
Author: movie zombie

Date: 1/19/2009 11:45:39 AM
Author: risingsun

Date: 1/18/2009 7:33:13 PM
Author: HollyS
Karen makes a good point about the growing ineffectiveness and lessening influence on the average voter by the national parties. At least I hope she''s right about that. Sometimes I think we all wish they would just simply ''shut up''. An ordinary American is perfectly capable of understanding the issues, without the party spin doctors, and making their decisions based upon what they feel is best for themselves and our country. Isn''t that what a democracy is all about? We won''t always agree, and we don''t have to; but by and large, most of us understand the importance of ''government FOR the people, BY the people''. And goodness knows, both parties have been guilty of trying to shove government down our throats, in bites we don''t want to take.

No matter our party affiliation, we need to remember to vote with our minds,hearts, and souls; and to put our money, time, and voice to causes we believe in.

OMG...I agree with Holly

Well said, indeed! I am a registered Independent.

and another OMG i agree with Holly! indeed, very sell stated!

movie zombie

Our idealogies may differ; but I don''t see a lot of difference in how PSers ''think''. Everybody (on PS) gives it their best effort at understanding the issues, and we make (for ourselves) what we think are rational decisions.

The people who bug me are the ones who follow the crowd and let someone else tell them what to think. That''s why I think celebrities (Diddy, Oprah) should keep it zipped.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Democrat

 

[movie zombie]

Date: 1/19/2009 1:57:50 PM
Author: HollyS

Our idealogies may differ; but I don''t see a lot of difference in how PSers ''think''. Everybody (on PS) gives it their best effort at understanding the issues, and we make (for ourselves) what we think are rational decisions.

The people who bug me are the ones who follow the crowd and let someone else tell them what to think. That''s why I think celebrities (Diddy, Oprah) should keep it zipped.

disagree for 2 reasons:

-they don''t lose the guarantee of free speech just because they''re celebreties.
-they get people to think about issues that would not get thought about otherwise

we''ve got our strategies and they''re entitled to their strategies, too.

if you haven''t seen John Sayles'' movie Silver City, i highly recommend it. a good take on how the political/for profit system works and raises some interesting ideas on some other topics as well. people just don''t stop to think that things concern them until they are effected by those things [or lack thereof]: clean water, clean air, truth in advertising, just for starters.

movie zombie

 

[KimberlyH]

Decline to state. Neither party fits my beliefs enough for me to be affiliated with either one. I took some silly online test once that stated I was 65% Democrat 45% Republican. My husband says I'm a liberterian with too much sympathy for others to actually be one. I make my choices person by person, issue by issue and that it's all too important for me to have to pick a side and plant my feet firmly there.

 

[waxing lyrical]

Libertarian

 

[ImpatientOne]

Date: 1/17/2009 12:39:55 AM
Author: Kaleigh
I am a republican but voted for Obama.

Ditto!

 

[TravelingGal]

Reflublican.

 

[HollyS]

movie zombie: I agree that celebs are entitled to freedom of speech. But they also know that a certain number of people will vote/do without a second thought just because they said so. Sometimes it''s a good cause, but sometimes the celeb is just out for self gratification. People who say little can have a big impact; look at Ed Begley, Jr. for instance. Who doesn''t know he''s really into being ''green'' and has been from way back -- before it became trendy. We can all respect that. But should we respect ''posturing'' for the publicity? Ala Diddy? I don''t think so.

 

[movie zombie]

Date: 1/20/2009 12:24:33 AM
Author: HollyS
movie zombie: I agree that celebs are entitled to freedom of speech. But they also know that a certain number of people will vote/do without a second thought just because they said so. Sometimes it''s a good cause, but sometimes the celeb is just out for self gratification. People who say little can have a big impact; look at Ed Begley, Jr. for instance. Who doesn''t know he''s really into being ''green'' and has been from way back -- before it became trendy. We can all respect that. But should we respect ''posturing'' for the publicity? Ala Diddy? I don''t think so.

politicians are celebrities: should they be banned also from stumping for other candidates? they too can have a big impact on voters and will posture for publicity....... in a voting system that is all about posturing and influence peddling, creating identies for public consumption, marketing campaigns targeted to specific voting blocks, etc., it would seem that celebrity influence is the least of our problems.

movie zombie

ps i didn''t know he is Green! i tend to not pay attention to that kind of thing unless it someone who''s supporting a politician i don''t like and then i vote with my $ and don''t support their business/movie/or whatever.

 

[ksinger]

Date: 1/20/2009 12:44:34 AM
Author: movie zombie

Date: 1/20/2009 12:24:33 AM
Author: HollyS
movie zombie: I agree that celebs are entitled to freedom of speech. But they also know that a certain number of people will vote/do without a second thought just because they said so. Sometimes it's a good cause, but sometimes the celeb is just out for self gratification. People who say little can have a big impact; look at Ed Begley, Jr. for instance. Who doesn't know he's really into being 'green' and has been from way back -- before it became trendy. We can all respect that. But should we respect 'posturing' for the publicity? Ala Diddy? I don't think so.

politicians are celebrities: should they be banned also from stumping for other candidates? they too can have a big impact on voters and will posture for publicity....... in a voting system that is all about posturing and influence peddling, creating identies for public consumption, marketing campaigns targeted to specific voting blocks, etc., it would seem that celebrity influence is the least of our problems.

movie zombie

ps i didn't know he is Green! i tend to not pay attention to that kind of thing unless it someone who's supporting a politician i don't like and then i vote with my $ and don't support their business/movie/or whatever.

Perhaps rather than thrashing about who is saying what to whom, we should focus on an educated populace. Of course, there are many institutions for which a truly educated populace would not be a good thing. Biddable people are a good thing depending upon who you are. (e.g. - Does anyone here in the real world not feel a bit duped for buying in to the last 20 years of slick propaganda that 401ks were the panacea for all our retirement needs, while the people in charge of the whole thing were taking profligate risks with those vast streams thus created by your money?) In any case, I doubt either party would give BACK a vote just because the person casting it didn't "understand" as well as he/she should have. In a adversarial political system, at the end of the day, the one with the most votes wins, and if they got stupid or uninformed people to vote for them, well, it's still a vote. Beyond not shouting fire in a crowded movie theatre, public figures are not responsible for the fact that people with limited critical thinking skills exist and will be swayed easily.

And I actually don't agree that the average person can know enough to vote intelligently. You can try - and should, but you can't know the issues, not all of them. The sheer weight of information available today, and the complexity of the issues themselves, and the immediacy of the information, is so much greater than in times past. It's why presidents and congressmen have staffs..."YOU know everything about the financial markets, and you know health care issues, and you know this issue". They get expert advice to distill the issues FOR them, plus that is the only thing they DO. Knowing the big, complex issues is what they are paid to do, and most of us agree that even with that amount of help, they don't always do a great job. I doubt that many of us out here in the real world, who have full-time jobs, kids, and lives, have the time to truly inform ourselves on many issues. Maybe one or two that are of great personal interest to us, but all of them? To vote intelligently for a candidate based on our real knowledge of economics, business, the science behind global warming? To have a deep knowledge of international politics, a historical view and understanding of the abortion issue? The list could go on and on. At some point you just have to make a choice based on a relatively limited set of data, and your own internal paradigm about how the the world works. You also see this in people just shutting down after a time. They hit information overload, and desperately want to reduce issues to right/wrong black/white, when they clearly are NOT. Human beings can only deal with so much complexity before they give up on those issues altogether.

On a more amusing note, the DH read somewhere that people start getting uncomfortable when being presented with 7 choices, and pretty much shut down at 11, and many times decide not to purchase an item at all because of choice overload. I've noticed it in myself before - usually in large department stores. For him it's shampoo. He can't STAND to choose shampoo. Too many choices. Pisses him off. I buy the shampoo for him now.

Here's a man with the ability to remember and synthesize more historical knowledge than I could dream of having, brought low by shampoo.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I''m registered Independent, but I lean WAAAAAAAAY to the left!

And Karen, I feel your pain! DH has the same shampoo issues. He always says he wants to try a different shampoo, but then stands there in the shampoo aisle of Wal-Mart like a deer in headlights, and ultimately ends up buying his same ''ol Head ''n Shoulders! LOL!

 

[Diamond Confused]

Staunchly Republican... except with regard to abortion rights.

 

[AprilBaby]

Republican for Obama.

 

[geckodani]

Centrist. DH is Libertarian. He votes Republican, I vote Democrat.

We went in and cancelled out each other's votes.

The party system in this country sucks.

 

[MaggieB]

I never know how to answer this. My conservative friends think I am a liberal and my liberal friends think I am a conservative. Except for my mother-in-law who thinks I am a crazy whacko ultraliberal feminazi (this probably says more about her than me . . .)

I am a registered Democrat who voted for Obama but considered McCain VERY early on in the race. I was already strongly leaning toward Obama by the time McCain picked Palin, but that choice blew me back to the liberal side pretty quickly.

I think that both sides are necessary to balance one another out. Ideals must be balanced with practicality, and pragmatism must be balanced with compassion. There is no one party that is always right or always right for the job. I believe (and hope) that we chose a candidate that is very right for this country right now. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[partgypsy]

I guess I am a liberal, but a fiscal conservative. Ideally I would like the government to be run like how a sensible person runs their own household, living within their means. The number one thing I vote on is conservation/environmental issues. Not only do I like trees

, it''s simply from a survivalist standpoint I would like the way we live life to be sustainable so that the earth can be left for my and others grandchildren in roughly the same shape as when I had it. In the same way I see constantly running an (increased) deficit is not sustainable in the long term. Greater than any foreign power, the ability to do damage to the American way of life is in our own hands, and we haven''t done such a great job lately. However it doesn''t seem like there are any fiscal conservatives on either side of the fence right now...

 

[Cind11]

I am a registered Independent, but in national elections have a tendency to vote Democrat. I voted for Obama! I think I am much more toward Liberal than Conservative.

 

[Dreamgirl]

Unaffiliated/Independent but I don't care for any of the past Republican Presidents (of my time anyway.) I voted Obama......So, I guess you can say I lean towards the Dems. but I really REALLY hate taxes.....

 

[misskitty]

Registered Republican, although I don''t always agree with the party''s choices. I''m one of those people who likes to refer to myself as "socially liberal, fiscally conservative."