# Political Affilliation Poll **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129 "2009-09-22T19:55:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/21 "2009-09-23T00:48:18Z")
I-am-a-member-of-The-Brain-Slug-Party-they-have-great-hats-do-you-want-one-they-are-free! actually, it’s the Voter Apathy Party, A.K.A. “Independents” ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/22 "2009-09-23T00:56:12Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Doesn’t “Other” mean everything else – communist, socialist, christian democrat, liberal, fascist, etc.? And who is a Whig these days? [Whigs, in my political system? It’s more likely than you think.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Whig_Party) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/23 "2009-09-23T01:07:29Z")
Registered Libertarian, but I’ve shifted leftwards over health care. I wouldn’t call myself a Democrat. Conflicted Independent, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/24 "2009-09-23T01:14:48Z")
Libertarian Party is a choice, but Green Party is not? I think the polltaker’s bias is showing. P.S. Seeing as how this is the internet, accessible worldwide, I suggest that the qualifier “USA” should be in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/25 "2009-09-23T01:34:58Z")
Yeah, sorry guys. Not a perfect poll, nor maybe even a good one. But we’ll get the knack of it. Practice makes perfect, and the results really are interesting so far. Surprising even. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/26 "2009-09-23T01:54:11Z")
What is this Democrat party? [Ahh:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_%28phrase%29) > [@](#): > > “Democrat Party” has been used from time to time by opponents of the Democratic Party and sometimes by others. The earliest known use of the term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was by a London stock-market analyst, who wrote in 1890, “Whether a little farmer from South Carolina named Tillman is going to rule the Democrat Party in America – yet it is this, and not output, on which the proximate value of silver depends.”[3] The term was used by Herbert Hoover in 1932, and in the late 1930s by Republicans who used it to criticize Democratic big city machines run by powerful political bosses in what they considered undemocratic fashion. Republican leader Harold Stassen said in 1940, “I emphasized that the party controlled in large measure at that time by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly-Nash in Chicago should not be called a ‘Democratic Party.’ It should be called the ‘Democrat Party.’”[2] Democrat as an adjective was still sometimes used by some twentieth-century Republicans as a campaign tool but was used with particular virulence by the late senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, a Republican who sought by repeatedly calling it the Democrat party to deny it any possible benefit of the suggestion that it might also be democratic. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/27 "2009-09-23T03:59:33Z")
> [@Redwing](#): > > Since Independent is (or at least was) a party around here, I put other. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/28 "2009-09-23T13:50:27Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > What is this Democrat party? > [Ahh:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_%28phrase%29) Well, regarding all that, it was meant more like “I’m a Democrat” or “I’m Independent”. There was no intention to disparage the Democratic Party, even though I can see how the wording of the question might raise that point. Having been called everything from “Liberaltarian” to “Lying Fuck Face”, I’m not quite so sensitive to such matters as others may be. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/29 "2009-09-23T14:40:39Z")
I reluctantly voted Democrat, but we are fair apart on several issues (most notably abortion rights). Maybe I should have chosen Independent. But Republicans have been really pissing me off lately. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/30 "2009-09-23T15:02:02Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I was hoping for a “Socialist” option. I guess I could’ve voted “Other,” but I didn’t want to be lumped in with those nasty Whigs. Harumph. I demand that Whig be added as an option. I certainly don’t want to be associated with the likes of any Socialists! ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/31 "2009-09-23T15:43:22Z")
Not too many republicans…there’s a surprise. still too many. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/32 "2009-09-23T16:12:05Z")
No Anarcho-syndicalist option? For shame. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/33 "2009-09-23T16:42:29Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > There was no intention to disparage… Yeah, I know. I was just feeling grumpy and persnickety. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/34 "2009-09-23T21:40:17Z")
Oh. Okely dokely. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/35 "2009-09-23T22:06:59Z")
What is the equivalent in this poll for the UK Liberal Democrats? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/36 "2009-09-24T02:06:35Z")
The closest is probably “Libertarian”. From Wikipedia: Promoting social liberalism, Lib Dems seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs: they oppose what they call the ‘nanny state’. ETA: For most of the world (outside the US), if you call yourself “liberal”, you would most likely identify with the Libertarian Party. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129/37 "2009-09-24T13:39:08Z")
My views are mostly Libertarian. However, Libertarians rarely win elected office, so I generally vote Republican. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-affilliation-poll/511129.md?page=1)