# Independent voters, how are you voting this election season? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793 "2010-10-29T17:51:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/21 "2010-10-31T01:00:07Z")
I’m a leftist independent. I’ll be voting primarily for Democrats. For the most part, their politics are closer to mine than their opponents. A Republican will be getting my vote for one state-level position, because the incumbent running for reelection is a Dem who has been at best hopelessly inefficient and at worst fairly corrupt, and the GOP candidate is in favor of at least one thing I am. \Plus, if she wins and turns out to be an awful choice? I’m moving out of the state in January, so what the hell do I care?\ ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/22 "2010-10-31T01:41:02Z")
[QUOTE=InterestedObserver;13084223 Yeah, I’m such a “masquerading Democrat” that I’ve voted for Nader THREE TIMES. [/QUOTE] Hey, by that alone you are qualified as an Independent. I didn’t need to quote the rest. I stand corrected! I will say that most “Independents” that I’ve met will cast a vote for a dem when needed. So, to me, that doesn’t make you an “Independent” it makes you a “liberal Independent”. I’d be fine calling myself a “libertarian-independent” by the same token. I just don’t like that regular so-called independents (not you, through your clarifying post) will always vote for a dem when the going gets tough. That bugs me. If they’d just stick to their guns and vote for their original candidate and they started gaining traction, perhaps election laws would start to fall left and right and we’d have a multi-party system that (I feel) would be hugely beneficial. At least this would help at the local level. I’d be much happier with Nader running the show than say, Bush or Obama. With the major parties you essentially get extremely watered-down version of what I ultimately want. I may be biased, because in PA we have DINO’s running around and it pisses me off. Figure A: Casey, Robert Jr, Specter, Arlen. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/23 "2010-10-31T01:46:37Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I’m a leftist independent. I’ll be voting primarily for Democrats. For the most part, their politics are closer to mine than their opponents. The same, more or less. I have zero love for the Democratic Party or party politics in general. Indeed I tend to regard doctrinaire party loyalists with a slight suspicion ;). But I generally vote Democrat for pragmatic reasons and this isn’t likely to change this time around, though I won’t make my final decisions until tomorrow or Monday ( I have to look harder at Maldonado - I like Newsome’s social views, but he has always struck me as a bit of a [Carcetti-like](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Carcetti) slick weasel ). I DO vote for the occasional Republican ( I voted for Arnie for Gov. last time around ), but they tend to be exceptions to the rule. Unless they have a realistic chance at office ( usually this means small local elections ), I pretty much don’t vote third party. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/24 "2010-10-31T01:47:11Z")
And if I hear just ONE more “Jason Altmire is NOT Nancy Pelosi!” ad, I’m probably going to start tearing the heads off of Barbies and run naked through the city. Because when your options are an ex-hospital lobbyist who is effectively a shill for Pittsburgh’s largest employer OR a guy who was the director of Bush’s FAITH BASED INITIATIVES, well, you kind of want to die on the insides. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/25 "2010-10-31T02:57:19Z")
I’m an independent and I’m voting Democrat (Governor of NY) and Republican (State Senator). NY State legislators are wholly dysfunctional, I will not vote for any incumbent. I’m also prefer that NY be represented by one US Senator from each party, preferring to keep Gillibrand over Shumer, but the Republicans aren’t even trying to get elected here. Shumer is basically unopposed. ---
**Author:** ![Bartman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@Bartman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bartman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/26 "2010-10-31T04:29:08Z")
I’m a registered Republican… but the BS the the FOX-News party shovels my way keeps pushing me to vote for a greater percentage of Democrats every cycle. I would register as independent, but I would hate to lose the ability to vote in the primary. In any case this will be the first year I will have voted primarily for Democrats including a Dem candidates for Governor, Senator, and Rep on the national level. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/27 "2010-10-31T04:49:02Z")
> [@Bartman](#): > > I would register as independent, but I would hate to lose the ability to vote in the primary. I’ve mostly lived in open-primary states and have voted in various primaries of both major parties several times. (These have always been genuine votes for or against, not “strategic” votes with an eye toward later general campaigns.) ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/28 "2010-10-31T06:00:31Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > I’m voting Republican because doing nothing is vastly preferable to doing stupid things. Just saying “NO” and being obstructionist is perfectly fine when what you are saying to to and obstructing is detrimental. What a shocker! I’m not registered either way, but I’ve voted for more Dems, a few Pubs, and one or two third-party candidates, including ones I later regretted. However, since moving to one of the most politically backward and socially backwater states in the Union, I am voting straight Dem with the exception of the Senatorial race, in which case I’m going Green (which I haven’t done since I was 20). No, not Alvin; the Green party candidate who almost certainly has no chance in hell of unseating that PoS DeMint. Yes, I have had enough, so, no, I won’t be voting Republican. Incidentally, I don’t watch TV, but on the few occasions I’ve been within earshot of a TV, I’ve seen only attack ad after attack ad by Republican candidates. How very unbecoming. Unfortunately, it pays off around here. Dems seriously need to up their game. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/29 "2010-10-31T06:22:53Z")
I am an independent and I will vote for a combination of Republicans and Democrats, depending on which particular candidate will do better in a particular position. Honestly, how can anyone do anything besides vote for the person you think will be the best job, regardless of political party? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/30 "2010-10-31T07:53:09Z")
Some Republican Governors seem quite fine. To vote for a Republican for Congress, however, shows cognitive deficiency I could only detail in BBQ Pit. > [@lindsaybluth](#): > > So let’s get this straight. Even though you OFTEN vote Democratic, yoooooou’re an Independent. But I, who am voting whole-heartedly for a Republican governor and am a registered Independent, am masquerading as a Republican. > > Most independents I’ve met are masquerading Democrats just like yourself. My boyfriend’s mom can’t remember the last time she voted for a Republican, if ever. But damned if she’s a “democrat” - why she’s an Independent, thank you! Faulty semantics confuses discourse in U.S. national politics. Some imagine there’s a “left” (Demos), a “right” (GOP) and “independents” are in between. Instead there are two right-wing parties (center-right and lunatic-right); so many self-described “Independents” are either on the “left” (stuck throwing their vote away on Green) or so far right, that the lunatic-right party isn’t lunatic enough for them. 😃 Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/31 "2010-10-31T08:08:30Z")
I don’t share basically any fundamental beliefs with the republican party so why would I vote for them? I vote for democratic candidates because when it’s a choice between someone who does nothing and someone who smacks you in the face, it’s no choice at all. And she’ll win anyway, but I’m so going to enjoy voting against that idiot bachmann. ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/32 "2010-10-31T09:12:28Z")
If you live in Alaska you are a republican, although a lot of democrats don’t know that. We have an interesting election coming up here. Joe Miller ® against Scott McAdams (D) for the lone senator seat for my state. The incumbant, Lisa Murkowski ® lost to Joe ® and is not on the ballot and is running as a “write in” next Tuesday. I hope Lisa wins and I already voted for her absentee. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/33 "2010-10-31T16:18:51Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Faulty semantics confuses discourse in U.S. national politics. Some imagine there’s a “left” (Demos), a “right” (GOP) and “independents” are in between. Instead there are two right-wing parties (center-right and lunatic-right); so many self-described “Independents” are either on the “left” (stuck throwing their vote away on Green) or so far right, that the lunatic-right party isn’t lunatic enough for them. 😃 > > Hope this helps. I think there’s also an ultra-left party too, it’s just the ultra-right is out in full force this season with the Tea Party right now so it gets more publicity. Single payer health care is a far left idea as well. Pittsburgh being home of the G20 last year brought a lot of the ultra-leftist nutters out of the woodwork. Like the group demanding everyone has a human right to a good paying job with benefits. :rolleyes: Sorry, but last Thursday night I saw a recent (and unemployed) law grad who licked every single one of his right-hand fingers before attempting to shake hands with someone. There are people who are _literally_ unemployable, and the thought that people “deserve” a paycheck instead of earning it is disgusting. It’s also extremely far left and outside of the mainstream, just as people thinking Obama is a Kenyan are far outside of the mainstream. > [@septimus](#): > > Some Republican Governors seem quite fine. To vote for a Republican for Congress, however, shows cognitive deficiency I could only detail in BBQ Pit. And I would argue that voting for Arlen Specter (after he switched parties) shows your mother swigged 40’s while she was pregnant ;). ---
**Author:** ![slowpony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@slowpony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowpony)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793/34 "2010-10-31T17:08:24Z")
The republican party as a whole spent the entire last 2 years making complete asses out of themselves. (Actually they spent the entire century making asses of themselves.) Voting democrat! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-voters-how-are-you-voting-this-election-season/558793.md?page=1)