A mirror image to this [thread=644268]thread[/thread], but I’m too lazy to make a poll. (Although “I’m a unique snowflake, and your options just don’t cover my special circumstances.” is a hella cool poll option.)
REPUBLICANS: Have you ever voted for a Democrat for President of the United States, or seriously considered voting for one, and would you consider voting for one in the reasonably near future?
If yes to the last question, what would need to happen for this to be a real possibility?
The progenitor thread has comments about the Republican party that would upset me if I were a Republican. I don’t want to start competitive name calling (let’s leave that to the candidates, m’kay?), but I think it would be good for me and the other Dems to see what folks on the other side are thinking about my side.
I would have to say no, because the basic philosophy of the Democratic Party isn’t in line with my political beliefs. However, I can say that I have in local elections voted for the Democratic candidate because I thought that they were a better person for the job. However, on the National scale, the core issues are too important for me to change my entire way of thinking.
Now, with that said I could see it myself voting for a third party candidate such as a Libertarian if the Republican candidate was unacceptable.
The Republicans would have to run true equivalents of Stalin or Lenin or Hitler or George Wallace, not people the left would falsely and knowingly paint that way like they tried with George W. Bush. But that will never happen.
Sure… in fact I have voted for Democrats as often as I have Republicans, once each (George HW Bush in '92 and Obama in 2008). '96 was Harry Browne, '00 was Ralph Nader, and '04 was Michael Badnarik.
At this point I am seriously disappointed in Obama, but am not absolutely opposed to throwing another vote his way. But I would be more likely to vote for the eventual Libertarian candidate.
I have never considered voting for a Democrat for President. If they nominated a conservative I would but then they would stop being the Democrat party. The last couple of Democrat presidents have been very good to the GOP but until the Supreme Court is free of liberals no rational person should feel safe voting for a democrat.
I voted for Obama; before that George Bush twice. Will probably vote for Obama again unless Ron Paul or someone not currently running is the republican nominee. Registered republican but both parties do a poor job of representing my views - something on the order of economically conservative but socially moderate. Although the republicans piss me off with their non-support of any change for health care - being a contractor and running my own company ,the current system is useless. I’d be totally fine with either total goverment out of it (no subsidy/tax break for buying it thru a business, no EMTALA, no Medicaid, Medicare, government only involved to make sure companies pay what they guaranteed), or just total government one-payer (simpler, level playing field), but neither party wants either of those.
This seems to me to be a bit of a “have you stopped beating your wife yet” question. Why do you presume that Republicans are different from Democrats on this?
Considered? Sure. I’m old enough to remember when there were still conservative Democrats and a lot more liberal Republicans than there are today. In that era, I certainly would have voted for a Sam Nunn over a Lowell Weicker, or a Scoop Jackson over a Jacob Javits.
Now, it’s been a long time since any conservative Democrat had a real chance to receive a Presidential nomination. Have I given ANY thought to voting for a liberal Democrat for President recently?
Yes- I thought George W. Bush handled a lot of things horribly, and wasn’t sure that John Kerry could do much worse. I briefly considered voting for Kerry in 2004.
I like seeing the mirror image of the comments in the other thread. It’s a useful reminder that no one party has a monopoly on truth or rationality, and that people’s opinions and priorities differ. I have zero problem with people saying “Your party does not represent my views, therefore I have not voted for your party’s candidates, and will not in the future unless those positions change significantly.” That’s a thoughtful response. I find that a much better response than “I don’t like the way your guy looks on TV.”
We need political balance - “one party rule” is not a good thing, particulalry in the long term.
There’s always been a good enough third party candidate for me to throw my vote away on if I haven’t liked a Republican candidate (the North Carolina Libertarian party is pretty good about running someone in most every race). This election cycle, I might consider voting for Obama if Santorum wins the Republican nomination.
That says an awful lot more about Santorum than it does about Obama. Obama’s track record of being mostly a non-entity would allow me to stomach actually voting for him than it would if he was as activist a President as he portrayed himself in 2008.
I’ve never cast a presidential ballot for a democrat, nor more than toyed with the idea. I’ve voted for dems for congress, senate, and governor, though.
What would have to change? They’d have to be pro-life and follow through on stricter handling of illegal immigration (current republicans don’t go far enough either, ftr, but they’re a bit better. at minimum I want any illegal immigrant convicted of another serious crime deported: vehicular manslaughter, drug dealing, gang violence, rape etc) and actually act to block going to war rather than simply roll over and vote for it anyway, but then they wouldn’t really be democrats anymore, would they?
I was too young to vote for him, but JFK was the last Democrat that I would have considered voting for. Every bloody one since then? Not no how, not no way.
Registered Republican here, which I’ve been my whole life.
I voted for the Republican candidate for President from 1988 through 2000 (though I had to somewhat hold my nose in 2000).
Then, I was so angry that President George W. Bush and a complicit Congress dragged us into a unnecessary war in Iraq that I vowed to vote against every politician who voted for that debacle. In addition, by 2004, I had concluded that Bush was an idiot, and that I was an idiot for voting for him in 2000.
At the same time, the Democrats finally appeared to shut up about gun control, so that was less of an issue for me. So in 2004, I voted for Kerry.
From 2004 until today, I have watched the Republican party move steadily to the right. And throughout the 2000s, the party appeared to abandon all fiscal control, which contributed to the national debt exploding out of control.
In the 2008 election, I lost all faith in McCain when he picked an unqualified moron as his running mate, and Obama was at least well-spoken and intelligent. So I voted for Obama.
I’m still a registered Republican, and supported Huntsman for the nomination until he dropped out. I will vote for Romney as the only sane choice left of the remaining Republican contenders, but intend to vote for Obama in the general election.
I remain a registered Republican in the hopes that the party moves back towards the center, but I could see switching my party affiliation at some point.
I’m a Republican but I’ve voted for more Democratic Presidential candidates than Republican ones. I’m a New York State Republican - I don’t like the direction the national party has gone in since 1980.
I used to be a Romney fan, but now I’m more looking to vote as a referendum on Obama’s performance. He’s done more for the war on terror than Bush ever did, and his energy policy doesn’t entirely piss me off, so I think I can give him my vote this time.