For those of you who identify strongly as Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or any other national political party: can you name specific item your party generally supports that you’re quite opposed to?
Any pro-life Democrats here? Pro-gay marriage Republicans? Anti-marijuana-legalization Libertarians? Come out of the closet, and tell us why you’re right, everyone else in your party is wrong, and yet you stick around anyway.
I voted for the Conservative Party if Canada last time out and proibably will again next time out.
They’re wrong on all kind of issues. Drug policy? Too harsh. Their youth crime policy appears to be based on little more than “hit 'em hard and we’ll get results,” which is proven nonsense. Their bait-and-switch game on same sex marriage was politically effective but morally wrong. They’ve done a shitty job justifying the war in Afghanistan, which is not to say most of the blame shouldn’t be pinned on our NATO “allies” for the grabbastic cluster that’s become. Their budgets are big-spending monstrosities; they spend far too much money, and give way too high a percentage of it to old farts. Their policies on Indian affairs are generally wrong but it’s hard to tell if that’s a property of the party of just a systemic property of Canada in general.
You can’t devise a political party that will make everyone happy except real knuckledraggers who just want to pick a team and will adjust their beliefs to anything The Leader says. My vote last time was based partially on the issues, partially on the personality of the candidates for the office of Prime Minister, and partially on my assessment of the need for a changeover of the reins of power. My next vote will take the same variables into consideration.
I’m pro-life, but it’s not a deciding factor for me. I’m also not sure how I feel about abortion as a matter of religion, legislating morality, and then I get tied up in issues of democracy versus republicanism.
If that didn’t sound clear, that’s because my head gets all jumbled when I think about it.
As for why I’m a democrat? Ummm, I like their fiscal policy, they believe government is inherently a good thing, and they are not Bush. I’m not an expert on politics, so… yeah.
I guess that would be me, as I tend to vote a straight Democrat ticket, though my views are more radical in nature. I think that, to put it simply, abortion is killing a human being and it’s absurd that it’s legal when other forms of killing, including euthanasia, are illegal. I resent that the abortion debate has been framed as any number of other debates rather than “is it ok and should it be legal to kill another human being in these circumstances?”, and I resent that the party is thought of as being automatically pro-“choice” because it’s been dishonestly framed as a women’s issue. Embarrassing.
But I think that Republican policies create the socioeconomic situations that demand abortion - namely poverty.
Industrial relations, refugees.
I vote for the Liberal Party of Australia (but it’s actually the conservative party - the liberals are called Labor).
Then again, I vote to the conservative side of politics because that’s the way I am - but I don’t necessarily think there are conservative parties on the ticket that I agree with 100%. This is annoying when people say, “you conservatives did X!”
I’m not a member of any party, but tend to vote Democratic, contingent on the candidate. I don’t agree with their general stance on gun control, especially at the national level.
Dude, seriously, I thought this was going to be like a 10-page thread. What!?
It just started.
I don’t have a political party, but tend do vote anti-abortion. I guess if that puts me in the Republican side, I’d say they are right about that and wrong about many other things.
The War
Taxes
Helping People in General
The Republicans made the mistake of getting in bed with the Christian right a long time ago. We need to kick them out of bed and quit farting around with trying to get Roe v. Wade revoked.
I am fairly conservative and used to identify as a Republican. I want smaller, less wasteful government, lower taxes, the death penalty.
BUT.
I am pro-choice, I am all for equal rights for gay married people (and hell, even straight married people!), and I am beginning to wobble on the death penalty.
I think I’m libertarian now, mostly.
I’m a registered Democrat. My party’s stance on gun control is not only wrong, but has costed us dearly in elections as well. Wrong + Loses elections = Why are we “the gun control party” again?
I registered Libertarian as in a big “L” that I did mainly on a whim. I am a small “l” libertarian but the actual party is just a bunch of delusional whack-jobs. I wish they would get their act together so that they might pull, say, 5% of the vote in any election. The party line is way too idealistic and radical. Their worst transgression is seeking completely open borders. In the year 2512, that may be fine but the U.S. is the wealthiest country in the world and the tidal wave of immigration from 3rd world countries all at once could not be good. Complete decriminalization of illegal drugs is another. That sounds fine for marijuana but what does that mean for all other drugs? We require a prescription for penicillin for good reason. How can Oxycontin and more powerful drugs be sold at the local Quiky-Mart? Would the local pharmacy switch over to open isles with daily specials for anyone that wants to sample anything they have?
My party is never wrong about anything at all. Not once.
-Dave, Independent
I’m a registered independent, but I basically vote democrat except when it’s local politics and the republican is great, and I also voted for nader in 00.
I’ve resisted joining up as a democrat because I think they’re pussies- they need to take some motherf’ing stands. Instead, they’ve become the party of compromise. I am not willing to “compromise” on torture, on maintaining rights, on honoring treaties, etc. etc. I may vote for a dem as the lesser of two evils, but damn if I’m going to “join up”.
Registered independent, usually vote Democrat. I agree with what I’ve seen in this thread already, that absolute gun control is a losing position that has no chance of ever working, and I can’t understand why it’s so damn central to the Democratic party.
I also agree with the poster who cited the Dems’ wishy-washy stances in the past 12 years. Congressional performance on most of the big issues that we voted them in for in 2006 has been really, really disappointing.
Didn’t expect to ever see a thread where I would get to espouse my particular unpopular view!
Sigh. Here goes. I vote Democratic but am anti-abortion. Note that I do not call myself “Pro-Life,” though. I wish to dissociate myself very strongly from the group that refers to themselves in that way. I am a big advocate for women and our health, so I don’t think we can responsibly ban abortion at this point in time. We may never be able to. I won’t ever vote on abortion as a single issue, I just don’t see how otherwise perfectly reasonable people can’t see that it really is killing a human being. And yes, I’m very well versed in embryology, I know, clump of cells, blah blah blah, but in my opinion, there’s no good reason to draw a black-and-white line between abortion and infanticide.
For all this, I know several women who have had abortions, some of them good friends and family. I think I do a very good job of refraining from judgment, and in most cases, I can follow their reasoning for having the procedure. However, as far as I know, all of their abortions were the result of “oops, I forgot to buy condoms–oh well, screw it, we’ll get it on anyway” scenarios. No good excuses.
Double sigh–I agree with TLDR about the fact that it’s mainly the fault of Republican policies. Better sex ed (not this abstinence shit) and more access to healthcare (including birth control) would be a start, but poverty is a big part of the problem.
Yup, that’s me. As I see it, marriage is good for both individuals and society because people in healthy relationships have a sense of stability in their lives. Why is it wrong to allow gay people to marry as well?
Oh sure, the bible says it’s wrong, but that’s mostly old testement stuff. The OT also endorses sarcificing animals to please God, says you all shouldn’t be eating shellfish, and that we’re not supposed to mix fibers for clothes. Not to mention the whole unclean during menstruation/after childbirth thing…
If people insist that it be called something other than marriage that’s okay with me (call it chubby wubby double hubby for all I care) - as long as whatever it is called has the same rights as marriage.
I am a registered Democrat, and I disagree with almost every fiscal stance the Democrats take. I’m with them mostly so I can vote for Obama, and because I’m afraid the Republicans are going to encroach even further on our freedoms if we give them the chance.
I’m a Democrat, and I despise affirmative action. I want a race-blind society, and I believe we can build one by, well, being race-blind.
There’s still a lot of resistance to nuclear power in the Democratic Party, and they’re wrong about that. We’re going to have to come to terms with nuclear energy if we’re going to deal with global warming and reduce our dependence on oil. Nuclear is at least a partial solution to two big problems.