i can see that as something worth waiting for. Maybe some day it will come true.
With that competitive spirit, I’m confident you will *win *an argument here some day!
I am a fiscal conservative (small government; do not spend more than you took in the previous year) a foreign policy liberal on Iraq (stupid to go in there) a world-politics conservative (the UN is loaded with incompetent boobs and it’s not the West’s fault that crappy nations have performed crappily), a foreign-aid liberal (we need to help struggling countries with our largesse) a social policy liberal (I don’t care who you play with voluntarily behind closed doors; I am in favor of race-based AA quotas and I favor making all recreational drugs legal and available), and an AGW skeptical Ignoramus… etc etc.
Should I be posting here? Mostly I use the Board to get a free education (especially from Kimstu); not to give it.
I’d like to think most Dopers are a similarly eclectic mix.
Well, as John Mace says, IANAC, but I suppose I DO play one on the SDMB, so…
Personally, I’d rather converse with people who aren’t like-minded occasionally too. It allows me to test my own assumptions and world view against others to see where the flaws are. The problem with only talking to like minded people (or closing one’s ears to anyone who isn’t like minded) is that you get the sense that all your assumptions are always right and your world view is rock solid. ‘Reality has a <insert one’s pet political bias> bias’. Heard that before?
While I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people dislike me (massive understatement), I don’t think they do so because I’m a ‘conservative’ by and large, as that I’m, well, really not very like-able. 
Taking into account my own nature I have no doubts that were I to go onto a board where everyone was a conservative they would like me even less, considering that I’m only a conservative by SDMB standards. To a conservative board I’d be hopelessly liberal with perhaps a slight tinge of conservatism wrt economics. Even there I’m not exactly a poster child for conservative economics.
If you cut it to ‘I like to argue’ then this is pretty close to my own reasons. The hostility I get is part of the price I pay to have an occasional good argument.
I find this board challenges me on my own assumptions and world view, and has done a great deal to shape my own changing view points on political and other topics. It helps that, with a few notable exceptions, I actually agree with a lot of posters on a lot of topics, even if I happen to disagree with them on a given topic. It’s interesting to see their view point and the try and both test my own or to see how they arrived at the one they are arguing for.
Not really.
I like this board a lot more than I’ve ever liked any of the others I’ve participated in before. In general, and with a few exceptions I like the majority of the posters here, and even if I’m arguing with them (as I have with you, Nemo) that doesn’t mean that I dislike them or that I don’t agree with them on many other things (though this always seems to come as a surprise to some).
-XT
You’re pretty fast on the draw, old timer.
I think one needs to distinguish between bias against you and disagreement with you.
While certainly some posters here make it personal there are still a fair few, on both sides, who engage in healthy debate. I think the good stuff is worth wading through some of the muck for.
As noted I can think of few better places than the SDMB to sharpen your opinions. On the downside I note that people in real life often find my more rigorous approach to a debate that I picked up here annoying. They are simply outmatched (usually…I certianly know some smart folks who school me in a debate) and that becomes apparent to them quickly and they disengage. I need to practice those skills.
As much as I hate it here, the money’s too good to pass up.
Do you really see that kind of intellectual segregation as desirable? I don’t.
To get a look at the other team’s playbook
I think there are different levels of disagreement. I think most people can live with “It’s good to hear different opinions and thrash them out.” But there’s also “You’re all close-minded and won’t even listen to what I’m saying.” I can see why people who believe the former want to be here. But the links I posted above seem to indicate some people feel this board tends more towards the latter.
I used to be Conservative. Then I became a Moderate. Now I am Liberal.
And I never changed my views!
As someone more socially progressive, I wish we had more conservatives posting here, as long as they make well reasoned points.
As someone who only occasionally posts in GD, I think if you did a poll in IMHO you’d find that a significant percentage of the SMDB could scarcely give a damn about politics and just want to associate with other like intelligent individuals without dragging politics into it. I know that there are plenty of people in MPSIMS, Cafe Society and the Game Room that never set foot in GD or the Pit.
And even when I don’t agree with someone’s politics I can certainly appreciate other aspects of their lives. For example, it’s not only conservatives who posted notes of congratulations that Shodan’s son got home safe from his tour of duty.
IRL, my friends run the spectrum of political beliefs. Just because we don’t vote for the same person doesn’t mean we can’t break bread, share a drink, watch a game or whatever together.
I guess I’m saying that I find your premise flawed.
Which raises a question to me. Can someone point me in the direction of a conservative message board with intelligent, good debators? I haven’t found one yet.
Some just don’t like preaching to the choir, it’s something more of a challenge to go outside of your area, and I think some think they are up to it; at least initially. Not sure why some others continue to stick around after going a few rounds, but it makes for a better board when there is a mix, and things are kept civil for the most part. I’m pretty much conservative in mainly one area, and that is fiscal responsibility. I wish somebody could explain to Congress what that means.
It seems to me that most of the ‘conservative’ posters in this thread are coming from the same place - we’re not interested in hanging out in an echo chamber, patting each other on the back and telling ourselves how clever we are. We’d rather wade in to a debate with real opponents and attempt to defend our point of view.
You’d be surprised how often I change an opinion on something. Sometimes it’s not even due to anything someone else said, but from what I learned in the course of researching my own side. I’ll go look for the raw data, and discover that it doesn’t say what the right-wing pundits claimed it said, and I’ll change my opinion on that particular issue. And I’ll find the same with left-wing beliefs that I accepted as being true until I see the actual data.
This kind of introspection only happens when you’re forced to seriously defend your point of view against smart opponents. It helps clear away the chaff in your own beliefs, sharpen your ideas and logic, and it makes you a better political citizen.
Plus, there’s the fact that I do think I’m correct on many issues, and therefore it’s sort of a civic responsibility to engage in debate and try to show people why you think they are wrong in hope of getting them to act and vote in the correct way. I assume most people here are motivated by this to some degree.
Frankly, what really baffles me is why more liberals don’t attempt to engage the right on their own turf. It’s hard to be a missionary if you never leave the church.
I also have to echo was Xtisme said - I’m only ‘conservative’ by the standards of this board. If I were posting at Free Republic, I’d be subject to the same attacks, only there for being a pinko radical.
I’d like to know this too. The best I’ve found are generally the comment sections at the better blogs like Reason or Marginal Revolution. But the message boards I know of are pretty bad.
I’m certainly not a conservative by this board’s standard; I’m a moderately leftist European 
The reason I read and post in GD is that it’s very interesting to hear the opinions and arguments of people who do not always agree with me. It’s true that the board tends to the left, but there’s plenty of well-argued conservative points of view to go around - not that all debates are that easily split between “liberal” and “conservative” anyway. But a lot of the Great Debates just wouldn’t be interesting without “the conservatives”.
I only belong to a few other message boards and politics are occasionally discussed there. They are mostly outdoors-related sites and they are mostly conservatives. When anyone expresses a liberal thought, the discussion is always civil and well-reasoned. I really don’t enjoy talking politics with people who agree with me all the time. What’s the fun in that?
When I joined the SDMB 4 or 5 weeks ago I thought the political discussions would be fun. Instead, I was confronted with complete hatred and disrespect. My posts were dismissed out-of-hand and I was berated for being/supporting racist ideology, not to mention being a blooming idiot, though I had only a dozen or so posts at the time. While I enjoy most of the discussion on here, I just learned quickly that there is no point in bringing up much of an opposing viewpoint, as it will not be respected anyway.
So the short answer to the OP is #1.
Here is poll that is tangentially related to this thread, please vote!
I like to debate/discuss issues with smart people. To do that I need smart people who don’t agree with me. I enjoy being asked to consider arguments from angles I hadn’t considered.
Now if we had fewer not smart people and a few more people who did agree, so much the better.