Bob, you gave me an answer, but you didn’t really put it in the historical context I was hoping for. And I didn’t specify any racial groups in my post at all - in fact left them out on purpose - so I’m wondering what you were trying to say?
FWIW I would think Lincoln being a Republican would make blacks tend more Republican, though I realize that black people were not able to vote freely until relatively recently, and a lot can change in that much time.
While Bob’s answer is a little out of left field (and somewhat incorrect, from 1864 until 1936, fully half of the time Blacks have been able to vote in this country, Blacks tended Republican), it is might actually be more appropriate than you think. The issues that today define social conservatism were generally accepted as general morality 60 years ago. For the 60’s minority relations were the standard that determined your social conservatism, not gay marriage. In the 50’s, it was acceptance of communism. In the 20’s, it was your stance on prohibition or women’s voting. At the turn of the century, it had to deal with union rights the gold standard, or, immigration (an issue that dies out for a while every so often before rearing its head again).
If you want to specify today’s issues, than your answer will be no: there wasn’t a difference in social conservatism. If you want to ask: has there been a difference on social issues between political parties over the course of history, then the answer is yes.
I agree. But probably not in the way bob intended it. Because I think Reagan epitomized the spirit of make-believe that has ruined the Republican party.
The problem I have with the Republicans is that the party has been taken over by the people who will say whatever it takes to get elected and then do whatever they want one they get in. These same people are afraid to simply state the honest differences between their opponents and themselves and instead they demonize their opponents with lies and strawmen and false postions. But the worst part is they count on the fact that a lot of voters aren’t paying attention and will believe the same lies in two or four years.
So because I want to actually get smaller government, fiscal responsibility, personal freedom, national security, and maybe even a little honest truth, I’ll probably be voting for a Democrat in 2008. The Republicans have been promising me these things since 1980 and they mostly haven’t delivered.
In 1964 I voted for LBJ instead of Goldwater because Johnson promised to continue the policies and plans of Kennedy. The Civil Rights Act made my vote worthwhile. Buit the buildup in Vietnam was a nightmare.
My stance on Goldwater has softened considerably over the years. I have more respect for the individual though not his political views. I still do not regret my vote in 1964.
In 1968 I voted for Hubert Humphrey who was running against Nixon. Nixon made my blood run cold. He had even when he was the Vice President. (I liked Ike though.) Humphrey had had the respect of the party for a long time. He was pro union and the unions were pretty strong then. I’ve always been pro union and the general mood of the liberal spirit of the times was pro union. No regrets.
In 1972 I voted for McGovern against Nixon. Definitely no regrets. McGovern was the peace candidate. Nixon was the loose cannon about to bomb North Vietnam. One of the best votes I ever cast.
In 1976 I voted for Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford. I liked Gerald Ford okay. Either one of them would have had a rocky time of it with inflation like it was. Jimmy was a lot smarter that Ford and he didn’t have an accent. I do like Carter’s ability to work with the Middle East. No regrets although I did miss Betty Ford.
In 1980 I voted for Jimmy Carter over my childhood crush Ronald Reagan. Reagan had a pleasant personality, but he just made things up. At least it was just to tell a good story and not the way our current president “makes things up.” I was thorough disgusted with Iran-Contra, but can’t remember which term that happened in. I thought that Reagan began to look really foolish. And Nancy was a PITA. It was puzzling how much she coached and coaxed him. Reagan’s poll numbers did not stay as good as people seem to remember.
In 1984 I voted for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan. It was a vote against Reagan and a vote for Mondale’s running mate – Geraldine Ferraro. I was more of a one issue person then and she was a female. Mondale had been Carter’s VP and seemed like an acceptable alternative.
In 1988 I voted for Michael Dukakis over George H. Bush. It was an anti-Republican vote. I didn’t know much about Dukakis except that he didn’t look like all of the other Presidents. I was beginning to feel a little bitter. When I found out that he was related to Olympia Dukakis, I decided that was good enough for me. I wish that I had voted for a third party candidate – probably Nader.
In 1992 and 1996 I voted for Bill Clinton and felt very confident of my vote. Bill has political savvy and so does his wife. He’s intelligent and he screws up in his personal life not with foreign and domestic policy. He made a good president and the people liked him. His poll numbers stayed good most of the time. No regrets at all.
In 2000 I voted for the man that I consider to be exceptionally well-qualified for the role of POTUS – Al Gore. He was an exceptionally good Representative and Senator. His focus on the environment has been long-standing. I never heard any stiff jokes until he became the VP and late night comedy started in on him. It became a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy.
In 2004 I voted for the man who lost the election because he actually fought in a war and earned medals. I can’t help but wonder what Karl Rove would have come up with if John Kerry had been a little older or a little younger. But…George would be more fun at a backyard BBQ, so he’s our president. Isn’t that something!
I hear people saying he lost because he couldn’t communicate well. I’m not buying it. I had no trouble following what he was saying and I’m absent-minded as hell. That’s not why he lost. Absolutely no regrets on that vote.
At least I’m not indifferent anymore!
BTW, just in case you might think that I always vote for the Democrat, that’s just in presidential elections so far. I have been known to vote for Fred Thompson for the Senate. Didn’t regret it either.
Here that is my point exaclty.
Politics for polics sake. It is not the Repulicans who do this.
BTW Kerry looked like politics for politics sake beacuse of his tour of duty to me.
Bush looked like he got out of it, not lied about it. Agreed that was a tie up, I wanted defense.
:dubious:
It’s ALL the Republicans have done in the last 12 years…
And if you think that your politican has your best interests in mind you are deluded.
I never said any politician did. But there’s a lot of middle ground between “don’t care a fig for anything other than my own bed-feathering” and “selfless saint of the people.” And the Republicans skew heavily to the selfish, unethical, disgusting end of that scale, with the added fillip of appearing rather proud of it (cf. Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, John Boehner, Ted Stevens, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, etc., etc., etc.)
read back a bit, and see some rationality. There is no lying sonofabitch in there. Just peoples personal politics.
Huh?
I cannot be the only one who reads your posts and has to sit in utter confusion for a couple of minutes before I can manage to cobble together some sort of metaconversational gloss on what you’ve actually typed. What possible connection does the above have to what I posted before it? I never mentioned a lying sonofabitch anywhere in anything I’ve posted in this thread…
You seem to have missed the references to Bush and Cheney (whatever you might think of DeLay.)
Incidentally, to at least give the appearance of answering the OP:
I turned 18 in 1989. My votes have been given, since then, to:
Clinton
Clinton
Gore
Kerry
I am, despite my voting record, a registered Independent. I can’t help it that the Republicans haven’t given me someone I could actually vote for without feeling like I’d just swum in a sedimentation tank.
With the above in mind, let me rephrase…I’ve never mentioned a lying sonofabitch in those words. 
Cynicism in politics is a self-fulfilling prophecy. A society that believes that all politicians are inherently crooked will tend to elect people that confirm that stereotype.
Part of the sickness that infects the contemporary Republican Party is caused by this attitude. If you don’t believe that it’s possible for government to be useful, how can you govern effectively? If you don’t believe the public good should trump private enrichment, how can you resist the temptations of corruption?
Here’s mine:
1976 - Ford.
1980 - Anderson.
1984 - 2004: Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry.
I’ve gone from being a staunch Goldwater Republican in childhood and adolescence, to being a GOP-leaning independent in my 20s, to being a Dem-leaning independent in my late 20s through early 40s, to being a Democrat from my mid-40s on.
The old saw is that you’re supposed to start off in life as a liberal (rhetorical) bombthrower, then move right as you get older. I’ve gone the opposite direction. 
I’ve never voted for anything but a Democrat. However, I’m not a Democrat, nor do I have any respect or affection for the party. I just fear and despise the Republicans, and regard them as a collection of greedmongers, lunatics, bigots, scum, and fanatics; and they’ve been getting worse and worse my whole life. Since in practical terms it’s one party or the other, I vote Democrat to oppose the Republicans. I really don’t care about the individuals; I’ve never been faced with a Democratic candidate crazy or nasty enough that I’d vote for a Republican.
So… Kerry actually fought in the Vietnam War, and was wounded three times, and Bush dodged it, and somehow you think Bush is the winner of this comparison?
Yeah, the corollary to the old adage that “No one does a better job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory than the Democrats” is “The Democrats do a lacklustre job of giving you a good reason to vote Democratic; the Republicans, on the other hand, do a spectacular job of it every chance they get”
1988 voted for Dukakis (thought it was Mondale, but apparently not) because I didn’t want a CIA chief in the White House
1992 - Perot because I still didn’t like Bush and even then I didn’t trust Clinton
1996 - Perot because even that little weirdo was better than Dole or Clinton
2000 - Brown because I’d discovered Libertarians. I’ve never liked Gore (even back in the 80’s) and Dubya? No way.
2004 - I don’t remember - someone I’ve never heard of. Kerry sickens me and Dubya’s worse.