Given that only a percentage of dopers post in threads clearly identifiable as ‘political’. and also given that they’re not all in GD or the PIT, I suspect that you’re going to have a difficult time assessing political party affiliations. Example of course, moi - I don’t consider myself a dem, have voted for Rep, independant (but not Perot) and Dem for President in various years, while I am generally considered to be ‘leftist’, I hold decidedly conservative views on a couple of ‘hot button’ social topics.
General view of board dynamics from my perspective:
RE;legalization of drugs - I suspect that most here are at least in favor of at least decriminalization of drugs.
sex related issues - It seems that again a majority of the board would be in favor of some lessening of restrictions on sex related issues, most notably legalization or decriminalization of prostitution, fewer restrictions for adult access to porn, perhaps a general consensus on lowering the age of consent (in some places it’s 18) or at the very least making a different classification for persons who’ve achieved puberty; I also believe that a plurality would be in favor of some legally sanctioned same sex partnership, there’s a smaller # who’d be in favor of the gub-mint staying out of the legalization of marriage totally, so gender, familial relationship, plural marriages etc. would all be ok.
Environment/animals - here you’ll have a wide range from tree hugers to spotted owls make a dandy breakfast. While PETA gets a great deal of derision, there’s a notable contingent of vegans/vegetarians and all the possible combinations.
Hunting/guns - again wide range. There’s a very large, voiceful group of avid gun enthusiasts, and an equally loud group of those in favor of multiple governmental levels of restrictions for same.
human service/Fiscal issues - there’s a large contingent of folks in strong favor of traditionally seen Rep. issues, such as charter schools, reduction of welfare rolls, the decrease in entitlement programs.
Death Penalty/abortion. While the number of folks at least in favor of having some abortions legal does seem to be larger than those in favor of no abortions, I’m not quite seeing that ‘most’ favor no restrictions to abortions. Death penalty do have very vocal advocates here.
Crime & Punishment - here in particular, while we happily noted that not all seem to be in favor of standard anal rape for prisoners, we still see little sympathy towards law breaking in general (except of course for the drug issue)>
So, given all of the above, where do you suggest that they stand on ‘rep’ vs. ‘dem’?
I’d suspect most Dopers don’t identify themselves exclusively with one political party – I mean, I’m a registered Democrat, but if colin Powell was running on the GOP ticket, I’d seriously consider voting for him because he’s a smart ookie.
On the broader question of the overall political “lean” of the SDMB, I think it’s mostly moderate. Though I imagine the die-hard right-wingers would characterize us all as a bunch of liberal tree-hugging bleeding hearts, but that’s only because today’s right-wing advocate think anything left of Dick Cheney is “liberal”.
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[li]The SDMB is Global in nature–i.e. “The World Wide Web”–and as such, the terms are irrelavant.[/li][li]I vote by issues, & by the candidate–not by party. I have voted in one pary’s primary, & then voted for the opposite party in the general election. That’s legal here.[/li][li]Learn to be flexible, & try not to pidgeonhole people.[/li][/list=1]
…think anything left of Dick Cheney is “liberal?!” I’m sure there plenty that remains of Dick Cheney that is still staunchly fascist! I mean hey, he had a heart attack, but he’s still got most of his original parts.
I gotta agree that this place is too smart to get pigeonholed in two political parties that have absolutely nothing to do with a large part of them. I’m a United Statesian, so it has some relevance to me, but the OP should definitely been open ended, like “liberal or conservative” or “democrat (lower case ‘d’) or monarchist”
I think there are quite a few overlaps on this board, even among those of us that fight like cats and dogs over many issues.
I don’t think you’ll find a lot of religious conservatives of the Pat Robertson variety. And while there are a couple of old Marxist-Leninists kicking around, most of the people on the left here are more open-minded when it comes to things like free trade, reasonable military support, and the people on the right are more open-minded when it comes to things like support for Gays, drug legalization, and a reasonable safety net.
Virginia Postrel has been advocating a new political label for people who share the qualities of support for science, forward-thinking, open to new ideas. They are ‘dynamists’. And they can differ on many of the things that cross traditional party lines, but they all support a dynamic, progressive future. I like it, and I think it describes a pretty big chunk of the people on the SDMB.
The SDMB certainly doesn’t seem to be very democratic; nor does it seem to be even vaguely republican–at least I haven’t seen any votes with majority decisions ruling nor any sort of republican-like structure, even among the various Boards.
Nor does it seem to be very Green. :mad:
Somehow, I’ve always had the notion that the SDMB was Libertarian; but that’s just my opinion.
The answer to the OP varies for everyone and depends upon one’s own vantage point.
I find the board to be very strongly liberal, and by extension, Democratic. Having been born and bred in Louisiana and living now in Mississippi, such views as are commonly espoused on this board (see wring’s first post) still tend to seem over-the-top to me. Such views are virtually unknown wherevener I’ve lived.
As a point of reference, Pat Buchanan passes for moderate around where I live . I exaggerate but little.
I agree with Scylla’s take about exposure to opposing viewpoints. Without the SMDB, I would have no knowledge at all of liberal viewpoints, as there would be few real-world examples to observe.
I prefer the Nolan chart representation of political leanings to the whole linear Republican/Democrat thing.
On linear tests, I always end up just left of center. On Nolan chart tests (2 dimensional representation of political leanings based off of an economics axis and a personal liberty axis), I end up slightly left of center, but far into the Libertarian area.
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