I registered as Democrat when I first signed up to vote. Then, independent. Now I am “no party”.
-Anaamika, completely disenfranchised and jaded about politics.
I registered as a Republican and changed it to Independent because I loathe what the Republican party has become.
I registered Republican when I first signed up to vote. At the time, I was clueless about what either party actually represented, and the Republicans were the only ones who bothered trying to get me to join. Since they had been nice to me, I wound up choosing their party.
I’ve never really bothered to change it because it’s never been of any relevance. It’s just fun to talk about how liberal I am, and then spring on people that I’m a Republican. Oh, and I voted for maybe one Republican in the last election–a local guy who I knew was actually good for the local job.
I know there are card-carrying members of political Parties. My son is one. He’s actually attended certifications to prove he subscribes to formal Party Platform details. I don’t have to specify whether it’s Democrat or Republican as, either way, it says that he lacks the capacity for individual thought and value, and votes based entirely upon preconceived ideas generated by others. Same applies to the myriad other parties.
Me, I’ve had to declare a Party specifically for voting in primaries, but I’m free to change that for each election cycle. It just means that once I’ve voted in a primary, I can’t go vote in the other, but after the primary is over, my declaration is null and void. I think that I, like most people, consider themselves to be Independents. They consider thet values of both the Left and the Right and try to vote on a candidate that best embodies an aggregate of those values. Unfortunately, you won’t find many Indpendent candidates because massive money is needed for campaigns; money raised mostly by one of the two dominant Parties.
A good politician knows to ignore the extremists of either Party, but over the last dozen years, BOTH sides have been listening too much to the loudest, not the majority, of constituents.
In other words, extremists comprise the minority that are actual card-carrying Party members.
Odd then that as a card carrying party member I had input to the development of the platform and input to the selection of the local candidate. I also had a chance to best seek to put those policies into practice, by working to elect the candidate - while election volunteers weren’t all members, you weren’t going to be involved in campaign strategy otherwise.
There is no shame in being an extremist. Those who stay in the middle of the road get run over.
I read this, and can only think there are differences between the UK and the US on this. I mean, sure, most people don’t belong to political parties here, but that’s because the party machinery is often seen as irrelevant - being a party member doesn’t mean you have to vote for that party at the election, and not-being a party member doesn’t prohibit you from doing so. So the people who do join parties tend to be the small number of people most actively involved in politics, and ones who want to financially support a party they believe is largely heading in the right direction, but they aren’t necessarily extremists in that they fall to the fringe of the party in either a left- or right-wing direction, and most parties have factions that fall at both extremes, as I understand it.
With that in mind, how are you defining extremists? New Labour, for instance, (with apologies to villa if this brings up bad memories!) had members very much to both the right and the left of the party. Which ones are the extremists that should be disregarded? (We know, of course, which ones the New Labour leadership chose to disregard.) If you say “both” and parties should stick to the middle ground as represented by their members, how do you ensure that you’re keeping your party relevant and that it continues to appeal to new voters?
While I once had a card for the Democrats, there are occasions that I will vote for Libertarian candidates. It is rare that a GOP candidate I like makes it past the primaries.
Thisis a party I would like to have a card from. 
I’ve been registered as a Democrat for as long as I’ve been registered to vote. Pennsylvania is a strict closed primary state, not a party member and you can’t vote in it’s primary. I guess I’m a card carrying member since my voter registration card (which I’ve never had to show to a single person) lists my party affiliation. I’ve never payed any kind of dues, but I do get “surveys” in the mail that are really very thinly disguised requests for donations.
There may not be any shame about being an extremist but there should be a little honest self-reflection. Any extremist should ask himself why he’s sure he’s got the right answer when so many other people disagree.
I was a card carrying member of the Alberta Conservative Party even though I have never, and probably will never vote Conservative. (I think I did actually get a card)
They were electing the new party leader and only registered members could vote on that. Since that person was going to be representing my province I felt the need to have my say in who it should be.
I registered as an independent when I turned 18 in 1975 and remember actually getting a real card that said so. I’ve been one ever since, but I haven’t had a “card” since, oh, 1977 or so.
Just so you know: Anyone who ever votes Republican for national office in post-modern America seems to me to lack the capacity for thought. I consider it ignorant to do anything but vote a straight Democrat ticket automatically given the present political situation, at least for national office. And, BTW, “lacking capacity for individual thought and value” is not a charge which has been leveled against me. 
Well, I guess if anyone could be called a “Card Carrying” member of a party, it is me. In my first Presidential election I voted for Teh Gipper, and have voted for a Republican in every Presidential election since.
I held my nose the second time for Bush II, but I figured, let him clean up his own mess.
I have been sent literature from the Republicans, but never sent them a dime.
So I don’t know if that makes me a “Card Carrying Republican”.
I can tell you that my Dad finally sent them like twenty bucks. In the next year, he received, on average, one mailing per week. Expensive mailings. He finally wrote them a letter, telling them that he wasn’t going to give them any more money, as they obviously only spent the donation he already sent, and far more, bombarding him with junk mail.
I used to be a wide eyed Reaganite, but at this point they can all suck a festering green donkey dick.