What political party am I?

In My Humble Opinion
1

(This is in GQ instead of GD or IMHO because I’m looking for a factual answer, not opinions or a debate on my political views. Even if the mods move it, I’m looking forward to learning a lot from the responses.)

Republicans accuse me of being a Democrat. Democrats accuse me of being a Republican. I can’t reconcile my personal beliefs with either party. So help me out here. I’m spelling out what I believe, and which party I think shares my views. I don’t know as much as I should about the party platforms (have you ever tried to actually read that stuff?), so I may be incorrect about which party thinks what. Please correct me as appropriate.

#1: I believe in personal responsibility. If you screw up, you shouldn’t be able to sue somebody else for it or collect money from the government. You should take responsibility for what you did and move on. I guess that makes me a Republican.

#2: I believe people have a right to their own bodies. Abortion is a religious issue, not a political one. Ditto suicide and euthanasia. If you want to kill yourself, that’s your call, not mine (But if you botch your suicide attempt, don’t expect my tax money to cover your medical bills. See #1). I guess that makes me a Democrat.

#3: I believe that elected officials should be held to the same standards as everyone else, or even higher standards. Bush should have fired Rove instantly, and Rove should have faced criminal charges. I would have lost my job for sleeping with someone who worked with me and then perjuring myself before a grand jury. Clinton should have lost his job, too. The system seems to be working with DeLay. I guess neither party will like me for that.

#4: I believe that racial and gender discrimination are wrong. They’re wrong whether you’re discriminating against black folks or white folks; men or women. Affirmative action is discrimination, hence it’s wrong. Back to Republican.

#5: I believe that our environment is critically important, and needs to be protected (although the Earth First people are dangerous loonies). We need to spend more time listening to the scientists and less time listening to profiteers. Gotta be a Democrat.

#6: I believe in freedom of religion. That means you have the right to be Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Wiccan, or whatever. It includes freedom from religion, should you decide to be an atheist. Christians shouldn’t be able to prevent Halloween parties at school, and atheists shouldn’t be able to prevent Christmas parties. That doesn’t seem to fit either party.

#7: I believe that our current system of income tax is a cobbled-together sham that rewards incompetence, dishonesty, and whoever can afford the best lawyers. Probably Democrat.

#8: I believe that it’s okay to be successful, and if I happen to strike it rich, I don’t need to feel embarrassed, nor do I need to be punitively taxed for it. Must be Republican.

#9: I believe in free speech, and the freedom to read whatever you wish without having to justify it to anybody. The USA PATRIOT act is an abomination. Democrat again.

#10: I believe that we should worry about our problems here at home before we send billions of dollars, thousands of troops, and untold other resources at other countries. If we hadn’t been meddling in the affairs of the middle east for the last 50 years, would we be having the problems we are today? Unfortunately, neither party seems to agree with me there.

#11: I believe that Federal judges should be chosen based on their experience, knowledge, and qualifications as judges, not elected or picked for political reasons. I especially feel that you shouldn’t be a Supreme Court judge unless you have experience as a judge, and you shouldn’t be the Chief Justice unless you’ve served on the Supreme Court. Democrat?

#12: I believe that there are crimes that warrant the death penalty. Republican.

#13: I believe that the war on drugs is over. It was a miserable failure. Democrat?

#14: I believe that everyone who comes into this country legally and works to become a citizen should have the same rights and benefits I do. People who sneak in illegally should not. We have rules. Enforce 'em or change 'em. Republican.

#15: I believe that the health care system in this country is thoroughly broken. I don’t know how to fix it. I didn’t like Hillary’s approach, but I haven’t liked any other proposals I’ve heard, either. Democrat?

#16: I believe that gays should be able to marry. I don’t care what your sexual orientation is as long as you don’t shove it in my face (so to speak). Democrat.

I think what I like least about the Democrats is the philosophy of entitlement (along with “tax & spend” economics), and what I like least about the Republicans is their propensity for meddling in my private life.

As a side note, the terms “liberal” and “conservative” don’t appear to fit me, either…

Thanks for your help.

2

You may be a [url=http://www.lp.org/article_85.shtml]libertarian.

3

Libertarian.

The “Quick Reply” button is the work of the devil.

4

No list, however long, of your political positions could ever tell us which party you should belong to. Who you vote for in a given election is a pragmatic decision based on which positions you and the candidates believe in and which of those positions you think are most important at the given time for the given office. At times, when there are more than two candidates, you may even decide to vote for candidate A, even though you agree more with candidate B, because you don’t think B can win and you don’t want candidate C, who you agree with very little, to win. It’s possible that you might agree with some party enough that you might decide that you should join it so that you can vote in their primary and influence who they nominate, but if you agree with a party that much, you wouldn’t be asking this question.

Many of the positions you list and then say that “I must be Democratic/Republican” seem to be based on misunderstandings of what Republicans/Democrats believe. You need to get a better understanding of what the parties actually believe before you make any decision. Some of the positions you list make me think that you tend towards a libertarian position, but others don’t fit with that at all.

5

Congratulations, you are not a Democrat or Republican. You are an Independent as are a large percentage of other voters. You form opinions issue by issue and evaluate candidates based for each office one at a time based on how well they would implement your beliefs in offic.

6

Thanks, InternetLegend. I certainly haven’t ruled out the Libertarians. I don’t understand their platform as well as I should, either, but it seems that their candidates for higher office don’t follow the platform very closely. I listened to a 2-hour interview with Harry Brown before the 2000 election, and I really liked what he had to say.

I do not now, nor will I ever, vote a party line. I have always judged individual candidates on their own merits, not on what party they belong to. What I’m trying to do is understand the parties better and decide whether I should be supporting one of them.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to do here. At the beginning of the OP, I said, “I don’t know as much as I should about the party platforms…so I may be incorrect about which party thinks what. Please correct me as appropriate.” I rather expect that I have misunderstandings of what the parties believe and the whole purpose of this thread is to correct those misunderstandings.

7

My goodness, your are an independent (lower case “i” that is).

I was GOP since reaching the age when I could vote, but feel betrayed by them for many reasons such as you enumerate, so last year both my wife and I changed registration to Independent.

If you sign up for party membership, even Libertarian, you will be held to follow their dogma, whether you believe in it or not, so with your conflicting views (most of which I embrace), I don’t think you’d ever be happy joining any current political party. Well, maybe Nilhilist. :slight_smile:

All that means is that right now I feel, “A pox on both their houses” and I am totally free to vote for whomever I feel is the least worst next time.

8

Almost certainly, you’re a libertarian.

If you’ve never seen it, the World’s Smallest Political Quiz (warning: questions are heavily slanted towards the libertarian perspective :rolleyes: ) is a great way to begin to understand the problem in multiple dimensions. Both Democrats and Republicans value certain types of freedom, and seek governmental control on others (for the “greater good”). There are better (i.e. more comprehensive and less biased) quizzes online, but I can’t find them.

As a side point, I feel compelled to point out that, while you did not do so, many people confuse “conservative” and “Republican” (likewise “liberal” and “Democrat”). The words, while often used synonymously, are not synonyms.

9

Based on your economic and social summary in your antepenultimate paragraph, I would concur and say that Libertarianism best describes your political leanings.

(As for being Independent and such…I don’t necessarily think it’s a badge of honor, as some seem to imply, and makes one more free thinking than the next. I think one can just as well say that Independents are fence-sitters who don’t hold a cohesive set of political beliefs.)

10

Well, you are in the People Who More Or Less Think Like Raguleader Party.

We got t-shirts, and on Friday nights, we meet up at the poolhall to shoot stick and get buzzed on rums-and-coke :cool:

11

I’d say you’re a libertarian. Welcome to the club! However, we’re not an official club, because the “Libertarian” title has been taken by nutjobs.

12

Hey, all you fellow libertarians (lower-case “l”) – what do you actually vote? Or do you live in states where the margin is so large that it doesn’t matter if you throw away your vote? That’s not meant to be Pitting – I did say “fellow.”

13

When the margin is so large that it doesn’t matter, I vote Libertarian. When there is a chance that my state will be close, I tend to vote for the (close) candidate who will be least injurious to my liberties.

For example, if both houses of Congress are Republican, I would vote Democrat to minimize the passage of bad legislation. Basically, the fewer laws that get passed, the better.

14

Going down your list:

#1: I believe in personal responsibility, too. I vote Democrat. If you screw up your airline or bankrupt your savings and loan, you shouldn’t be able to collect money from the government. You should take responsibility for what you did and move on.

#2: I believe people have a right to their own bodies. Abortion is a religious issue, not a political one. Ditto suicide and euthanasia. If you want to kill yourself, that’s your call, not mine. I guess that makes me a Democrat.

#3: I believe that elected officials should be held to the same standards as everyone else, or even higher standards. Democrat.
"Bush should have fired Rove instantly, and Rove should have faced criminal charges. I would have lost my job for sleeping with someone who worked with me and then perjuring myself before a grand jury. Clinton should have lost his job, too. The system seems to be working with DeLay. I guess neither party will like me for that. "
sorry, this part’s just bullshit; there’s no evidence that Karl Rove was guilty of anything, much as I’d like to see him take the fall, and sleeping with people at work is not wrong, and Clinton should never have been asked about it.

#4: I believe that discrimination is an essential part of being an intelligent human being. Discriminating between people based on genuine, relevant differences, that is: skin color is seldom relevant. Affirmative action isn’t “racial discrimination” – it’s restitution. Poorly directed restitution, to be sure, but calling a game “darts” doesn’t mean you’re not playing “pin the tail on the donkey.”

#5: I believe that our environment is critically important, and needs to be protected (although the Earth First people are dangerous loonies). We need to spend more time listening to the scientists and less time listening to profiteers. Gotta be a Democrat.

#6: I believe in freedom of religion. That means you have the right to be Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Wiccan, or whatever. It includes freedom from religion, should you decide to be an atheist. I deleted the part that didn’t make sense – what the hell do parties have to do with religion? Well, except Tupperware parties and Presbyterians.

#7: I believe that our current system of income tax actually works pretty well. Eliminate some deductions, maybe, and quit trying to socially-engineer people into playing the stock market, though.

#8: I believe that it’s okay to be successful, and if I happen to strike it rich, I don’t need to feel embarrassed, nor do I need to be punitively taxed for it. And, fortunately, no one is – if you make more money, you keep more money.

#9: I believe in free speech, and the freedom to read whatever you wish without having to justify it to anybody. The USA PATRIOT act is an abomination. Democrat again.

“#10: I believe that we should worry about our problems here at home before we send billions of dollars, thousands of troops, and untold other resources at other countries. If we hadn’t been meddling in the affairs of the middle east for the last 50 years, would we be having the problems we are today? Unfortunately, neither party seems to agree with me there.”
Not touching this one – I believe that the war in Iraq is lunacy, but I’m not prepared to paint all foreign policy with the same brush.

“#11: I believe that Federal judges should be chosen based on their experience, knowledge, and qualifications as judges, not elected or picked for political reasons. I especially feel that you shouldn’t be a Supreme Court judge unless you have experience as a judge, and you shouldn’t be the Chief Justice unless you’ve served on the Supreme Court. Democrat?”
No, I think “idiot” sums it up nicely. Legal scholarship is the only qualification that matters – experience as a judge really helps very little.

#12: I believe that there are people that warrant the death penalty. Basing the penalty on the crime is mere revenge, and I’ll have none of it. Democrat.

#13: I believe that the war on drugs is over. It was a miserable failure. Democrat.

#14: I believe that everyone who comes into this country legally and works to become a citizen should have the same benefits I do. People who sneak in illegally are still human beings, and have inalienable rights. We have a Constitution. Enforce it or change it. Democrat.

#15: I believe that the health care system in this country is thoroughly broken. I know how to fix it. I didn’t like Hillary’s approach, as it was corporate welfare for insurance companies. Democrat.

#16: I believe that gays should be able to marry. I don’t care what your sexual orientation is even if you DO shove it in my face (so to speak). Democrat.

I wouldn’t be a Democrat of there were a decent Socialist party in this country; what I like least about both parties is their worship of property rights.

15

You are most definitely a liberal. (Forget party affiliation, that’s a meaningless concept in US politics over time.) Note that I mean “liberal” in the traditional use of the word and not in the perverted sense that extremists like Novak and Coulter use it.

You are also not very well informed, but that is quite typical of almost all Americans. Take your #4 for example. AA does not discriminates against whites/males/etc. What you hear in the media about AA is a complete distortion.

In fact, the quote:

“I think what I like least about the Democrats is the philosophy of entitlement (along with “tax & spend” economics) …”

is nothing more than vile and untrue Republican propaganda. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were the most fiscally responsible presidents in the last 45 years. Reagan, Bush I and Bush II are the least fiscally responsible presidents ever. Entitlements? What have you been reading the last 5 years??? Look at the post 9/11 “bail out” of the airlines. A huge amount of your tax money was just given to airlines. There are hundreds of such examples. Conservatives have an unbelievable number of entitlement/welfare plans that they are quite fond of. They just use different terms.

I can’t even begin to explain what’s wrong with your #1. In case you hadn’t noticed, Big Business has Congress by the nose. It tells Congress what to do about everything. So a huge fraction of recent US laws are to “help” companies and rich people out of their self-inflicted jams. You are most definitely a liberal then.

Your #6 is internally contradictory. Make up your mind.

#8 is again based on misinformation from the conservative controlled press.

#14 also displays a lack of info. The Bushes are tacitly pro-illegal immigration. Many Conservatives cater strongly to the Hispanic vote seeing that it is “in play”. That means they downplay the problem of illegal immigration. (Right-wing radio hosts don’t worry about getting votes. Politicians do.) Immigration (of any type) is also seen as a way out of the Social Security mess. “Unskew” the aging US demographics by letting a lot of (typically) younger immigrants in. Note that immigrants also cause wage deflation which is a big plus from the point of view of greedy corporations.

You should also be aware that Clinton was tried and found not guilty in the Constitutionally specified manner. Ken Starr did a lot of dirty, illegal things to try and trap Clinton and failed. Starr’s the bad guy, not Clinton.

I am amazed that anyone would think your views are at all libertarian. Points 4, 5, 12 and 15 are all quite unlibertarian.

16

I tend to vote Democrat. In fact, I can’t think of the last time, if ever, I voted Republican. I can tolerate government interference in financial liberties more than in personal liberties. I far prefer a welfare state to a police state. Granted, this is simplifying the issue a lot, but that’s what it comes down to.

17

There seems to (almost) be a concensus here. Interesting. I took that quiz on the Libertarian site and it classified me strongly libertarian. You seem to be drawing a distinction between “Libertarian” and “libertarian.” What’s the difference?

Nametag, thank you for your detailed feedback. I said I didn’t want to debate specific beliefs, but I think I need to clarify a couple of these:

Having sex with a subordinate (a person you have power over at work) is wrong. It will get you fired almost anywhere, and has been the basis for countless civil lawsuits.

Restitution is the restoration of something to its rightful owner. I believe that nobody is the “rightful owner” of a job or a slot in college just because they’re the “right” race and a more qualified applicant is the “wrong” race. I believe that if a college admission decision takes race into consideration, then it’s discrimination.

Every time I’ve seen politicians fighting against real or imagined Christian influence in schools (e.g., school prayer, “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, school Christmas parties), they’ve been Democrats. Every time I’ve seen politicians fighting for the inclusion of theology-based teaching over science (e.g., “Intelligent Design”), they’ve been Republicans. Based on those observations, the parties seem to have a lot to do with religion.

This, by the way, is GQ. Go ahead and tell me you disagree, but if you want to call me an idiot, do it in the Pit. My personal belief is that you should work as a judge somewhere before being appointed for life to the highest court in the land.

18

Thanks, ftg. I missed your response while I was typing my last post. You make some excellent points, although you are quick to assume that everywhere I don’t agree with you means I’m uninformed. I just didn’t have space to explain each conclusion.

I must ask why you felt the need to say “You are also not very well informed, but that is quite typical of almost all Americans.” I don’t think being “not very well informed” is a uniquely American thing. I realize that I know less than I should about the political parties, but I doubt I know less about current affairs and politics than the average American, Mexican, Canadian, Iraqi, Afghani, or whatever. If I have to believe that Americans are inferior to be a liberal, then you can keep your membership card.

I’ve reread #6 twice, and I fail to see the contradiction. A group of conservatives (I believe that they were all Republican) attempted to ban Halloween parties in the school district where I used to live, because they’re “Satanic.” A group of liberals (I believe that they were all Democrat) in that same school district successfully banned Christmas parties at the schools due to separation of church & state issues. I think both groups were wrong. Neither holiday as celebrated in the schools is religious. They are both reflections of our culture.

“Conservative controlled press?” You’re kidding, right? Boy, it sure is amazing that those conservatives have such tight control that the press has never had a bad word to say about Bush, Enron, DeLay, the Iraqi war, or the 2000 election. :rolleyes:

He was impeached by the House. That’s a “guilty.” This is one of my biggest problems with the major parties. Democrats seem willing to excuse everything Clinton did, and Republicans seem willing to excuse everything Bush does. I don’t care which party they’re in. When they’re wrong, they’re wrong.

I want to know more about this. I have heard that Libertarians tend not to be environmentalists, but do Libertarians approve of our current health care system and support discrimination and/or Affirmative Action? Really? Are Libertarians anti-death penalty?

19

It sounds to me that you, like what seems to be the majority of Americans, have very little understanding of actual issues and vote based on slogans and bizarre strawmen (seriously, you think atheists are conspiring to stop Christmas parties? You believe in “personal responsibility”? What does that buzzword even mean?) It’d be hard to put you in any kind of political group because you don’t seem to have any actual understanding of the political issues you have opinions on. That would make you one of the vaunted “independents” or “swing voters”. Congrats.

20

This is part of what ftg meant by “not well-informed” – impeachment is an INDICTMENT, and has nothing to do with guilt or innocence. Clinton was tried and ACQUITTED in the Senate – for the uninformed, that’s a “not guilty.”

As for your response to my post…

Using power to get sex is wrong and illegal. Doing favors for sex is equally wrong, but not usually illegal. Merely having sex, even with a subordinate, is a private matter, and many companies (including mine) won’t bat an eye – officially, anyway.

Try definition #2: “The act of making good or compensating for loss, damage, or injury”; to elevate a man to the position in society he might have held – had he attended a good elementary school, grown up in a healthy family, or never been turned away on acount of race – might be quixotic, even impossible, but it’s definitely restitution. And of course it’s discrimination – but it’s not the kind of discrimination that’s illegal, or even immoral.

Not political parties, parties – Halloween, Christmas…

Most Supreme Court justices have served as judges, mostly because this gives those who decide a track record to decide on. The part that was idiotic was the declaration that only Associate Justices should be considered for Chief Justice – an administrative position that is almost always filled from the outside, and for which no more qualification is required than for associate justice.