# What political party am I? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2005, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646 "2005-10-10T23:08:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/21 "2005-10-11T19:30:16Z")
I don’t see how there can be a factual question to this question. This may become GD material but for now I’ll move it to IMHO. **Nametag** , try to be careful slinging insults outside the BBQ Pit. In context it’s not quite clear to me whether you meant it was the poster or the idea that was idiotic. The latter, although impolite, is not against the rules. Therefore this is not an official warning. Just try to be more careful about your wording in the future, as I will be keeping an eye out. bibliophage moderator GQ ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/22 "2005-10-11T20:57:27Z")
Okay, **Excalibre** and **Nametag**. Perhaps I didn’t make clear what I was asking in the OP. Let me try this again: I’ve always voted for candidates based on their qualifications and how closely they agreed with my point of view on key issues, not on their political party, so I haven’t studied the platforms very closely before. I started this thread specifically to learn more about the parties, not to debate my opinions. I tried to summarize things in a sentence or two–that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the complexity of the issues. If I classified one of my opinions as “democrat” and you think it’s “republican,” then tell me that, and I’d love to have you explain why. Calling me an idiot and telling me I don’t understand the issues doesn’t accomplish anything whatsoever. > [@Excalibre](#): > > 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 Ah. Another “most Americans are idiots” statement. How remarkably helpful. Ever consider that someone might understand an issue and still disagree with you? > [@Excalibre](#): > > seriously, you think atheists are conspiring to stop Christmas parties? Of course not. Stop trying to be condescending. Everyone trying to kill Halloween parties in our old school district was a conservative Christian. Everyone trying to kill the Christmas parties in the school district was a liberal (I have no idea whether they were atheists). I’m just telling you what I saw in the town meetings. > [@Excalibre](#): > > You believe in “personal responsibility”? What does that buzzword even mean? I thought I explained it pretty well in the OP. It means I’m sick of the “sue somebody every time something goes wrong” mentality so prevalent in this country in the last few decades. I’ve served on city committees, Chamber of Commerce boards, nonprofit boards, industry associations, and school committees. I’ve seen some of the most ridiculous lawsuits you can imagine, many of which wouldn’t have happened if people took responsibility for their own actions instead of trying to blame everything on someone else. Now you tell me, which of the political party platforms agree with me that we need some serious tort reform here? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/23 "2005-10-11T21:12:27Z")
Sorry **InvisibleWombat**. I meant #7, not #12. Too much scrolling around. One of the basic tenets of libertarianism is that the government doesn’t, for example, monitor whether there’s really 12oz of beans in that “12oz” can of beans. If you get shortchanged you’re supposed to sue Del Monte. I.e., a libertarian USA would be a lawyer’s heaven. The libertarian manifestos I read back in the day were also against even traffic laws. If someone kills you when running a stop sign, your estate gets to sue him. (Also be warned: The GOP learned in 1992 that third parties are a real threat. Hence the Buchanan campaign in 2000 to ruin Perot’s party. Their next target are Libertarians. So you have these “I’m not a conservative, I’m a libertarian.” talk show hosts who are amazingly 100% pro-Bush. Conservatives are working hard to convert liberals to libertarians (it’s just a couple of letters!) to conservatives (Hey, I’m against Big Government too! What growth in spending? Look, Halley’s comet!). Please, please reread your OP and carefully note that you repeatedly use ultra-conservative propaganda. E.g, your use of “tax and spend economics”, your slam of AA, your slam on _found not guilty_ Clinton, etc. (Note that DeLay has also been indicted but not yet tried. He is now in the same boat that Clinton was in when Clinton was impeached but before the Senate trial. While I wish DeLay would go away, I know that he is legally entitled to hold office until all the legal proceedings are completed. In fact, he might be able to still hold office while in jail.) You also seem to believe that the media is not conservative controlled. As a liberal, I know of _no_ major national media company that isn’t loathesome to the extreme to liberal politics. You have Al Franken’s little sideshow, a tiny number of local papers and that’s about it. (NPR barely qualifies as national, barely carries any real news, and is so afraid of being called “liberal” that they skew to the right to “make up for it.” There are no non-ultraconservative cable news networks. Novak, etc. is everywhere. Extremist conservatives call _any_ news source that isn’t 100% with them on _all_ issues “liberal.” This would be called “political correctness” if liberals were involved. They want to squash any and all who oppose their viewpoint. Ergo the “liberal media” Big Lie. A further note on AA: I have spent most of my life in the university world where AA is heavily valued. Not once I have even heard of a minority getting a job or a being accepted as a student over a lesser qualifed majority candidate. The entire faculty would be horrified if it did in fact occur. What Rush Limbaugh tells you AA is and what it really is are two different things. Note also that it is **not** reparations. As to #6, make up your mind. Religion in schools, in or out. If you’re against forcing religion down people’s throats then you’re against religion in schools. Kids are the most easily threatened and therefore the main targets of those trying to cram religion down people’s throats. Ergo, they should be the first to be defended against such things if you’re against such things. If you, say, read some overseas English language newspapers, you would quickly find that you are quite liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/24 "2005-10-11T21:22:10Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > Okay, **Excalibre** and **Nametag**. Perhaps I didn’t make clear what I was asking in the OP. Let me try this again: > > I’ve always voted for candidates based on their qualifications and how closely they agreed with my point of view on key issues, not on their political party, so I haven’t studied the platforms very closely before. I started this thread specifically to learn more about the parties, not to debate my opinions. I tried to summarize things in a sentence or two–that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the complexity of the issues. > > If I classified one of my opinions as “democrat” and you think it’s “republican,” then tell me that, and I’d love to have you explain why. Calling me an idiot and telling me I don’t understand the issues doesn’t accomplish anything whatsoever. > > Ah. Another “most Americans are idiots” statement. How remarkably helpful. Ever consider that someone might understand an issue and still disagree with you? Absolutely. You’ll never catch me questioning **Sam Stone** ’s understanding of politics - because damn, he knows his shit, even if his opinions are all different from mine. You, however, don’t - not judging by what you’ve said in this thread. You may not realize it, but you’ve constantly used buzzwords and slogans that were thought up by marketers and tested on focus groups and you’ve built your political beliefs around them. You remind me of a woman I heard interviewed before the last presidential election - she said something to the effect of, “I’ve heard Kerry’s a flip-flopper. I mean, if that’s true we can’t have him in office.” She was honestly using the phrase “flip-flopper” as though it had some sort of meaning rather than being an insult drawn up by the marketers working for the Bush campaign. That depth of “reasoning” does not reflect understanding issues and coming to a different conclusion. It reflects having little idea of what the issues even are, and letting media soundbites think for you. I know that pointing this out won’t make me popular. But, hey - it’s still true. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/25 "2005-10-11T22:09:54Z")
Thank you, **ftg**. You have some good points about my phrasing in the OP. I shouldn’t have used the term “tax & spend,” for example. See my response to **Excalibre** later in this post for more. I’m really having trouble with your comments about the press. If you’d consider me “quite liberal,” and I find the majority of major news outlets to be either liberal or centrist, then the conservatives must be doing a rotten job of controlling the media. > [@ftg](#): > > I have spent most of my life in the university world where AA is heavily valued. Not once I have even heard of a minority getting a job or a being accepted as a student over a lesser qualifed majority candidate. I presume you meant _more_ qualified? Anyway, I thought the entire point of Affirmative Action was to give preferential treatment to minorities. If you’ve never seen a minority student get preferential treatment, then it must not be working. > [@ftg](#): > > As to #6, make up your mind. Religion in schools, in or out. Out. I oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design, and I oppose school prayer. Religion doesn’t belong in schools, except in comparative religion classes and the like. However, I don’t view Christmas parties in the schools to be religious observances. Our school district did Santa Claus and the elves, not Jesus and the wise men. Santa Claus is cultural, not religious. > [@Excalibre](#): > > You may not realize it, but you’ve constantly used buzzwords and slogans that were thought up by marketers and tested on focus groups and you’ve built your political beliefs around them. No. I haven’t built my beliefs around buzzwords. In some cases, I’ve used those buzzwords as a convenient shorthand to explain why I believed my beliefs aligned with a political party. That was clearly a mistake. People tend to jump on emotionally-charged words and phrases like that and lose the rest of the content. You, for example, seem to be confusing my personal beliefs with my impressions of party platforms, and they aren’t the same thing. My feelings on income taxes, for example, are based on a great deal of experience and a reasonably deep understanding of how they work. I have not, however, researched what the Democrats and Republicans really think–not individual candidates, but the official party line. ---
**Author:** ![MizGrand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cdc98d/32.png) [@MizGrand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizGrand)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2005, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646/26 "2005-10-12T13:18:39Z")
I am extremely _ **pro-choice** _. I tend to vote for whomever _says_ they won’t take this freedom away from women. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-political-party-am-i/325646.md?page=1)