JC,
I found this a fascinating idea, I am a registered Democrat because often times in this state it’s the primaries that decide who will win the regular election, especially in urban areas, and I want a voice in deciding who that person is. Jesus Christ himself couldn’t get elected mayor of Baltimore if he ran as a Republican.
Sure, but remember that I’m from the D.C. suburbs, where Connie Morella was a Democrat in Republican’s clothing and held a seat in Congress for 10 years. So Republicans have a bit more of a chance down here, especially if they’re moderate.
Besides- given incumbency, I have no expectation that registering as a Democrat would allow me to affect whether or not Mikulski or Sarbanes ever got renominated. But I can help decide which Republicans are going to tilt at that windmill, and help choose sane and moderate people like Ehrlich as opposed to Sauerbrey or Keyes. (I lost all respect for Sauerbrey in '98 when a magazine- I believe The Washingtonian- asked Sauerbrey and Glendening a bunch of trivial questions. One of them was, “What is your favorite food?” Sauerbrey responded, “Filet mignion.” Even if one were to try and evade the general elitism or upper-classism inherent in that, responding with any non-seafood answer in Maryland strikes me as so politically inept as to borderline foolishness; she might as well have said her favorite sports team was the Indianapolis Colts.)
And even when Republicans go down to disastrous defeat in Maryland- as they often do- being able to point out that one candidate did slightly better than their forerunners slowly moves things along.
So, what’s the updated list like now? Around 30 or so (out of 40 some thousand? 
)
Count me in as a pretty middle of the road conservative with a little blip here and there. More fiscally than socially. I don’t think I’ll budge on abortion, guns, and taxes, but there are a few issues I’m pliable on.
I missed that thread the first time around, but when people like Airman, Sam Stone, and furt come up as moderate on non-fiscal issues, it seriously makes me question the veracity of that test. And I notice that a lot of respondents complained about the questions. Isn’t this just a case of drawing the line between “conservative” and “liberal” at an arbitrary point that is perhaps right of center? It seems virtually impossible to actually score as a conservative on non-fiscal issues in that test. One would have to be slightly right of Hitler to actually score as a strong conservative. I’m not saying there aren’t more liberals here on SDMB, but I think that survey exaggerates the case.
I’ve always thought that one of the main difference between liberal and conservative is that a liberal believes that the human condition can and should be improved by the actions of the government, whereas a conservative believes that the human condition is only improved through individual responsibility, which I think would tend to put Libertarians more in the conservative camp.
Maybe her favorite food was filet mignon? 
I mean, geez, we complain that the politicians lie to us and then get annoyed when they don’t tell us what we want to hear. ( And filet is not outrageously expensive, and is well within the ability of the middle class and even lower class to buy for a treat. It was $3.98 each at Jewel a few weeks back.) She may very well be a total dip but I think it’s weird that she is not considered “sane and moderate” because she didn’t have the proper (and most likely lying) response to a trivial question about her own personal food preference. If we really do expect politicians to lie to us even about what foods they like to eat and think less of them when they don’t, well, that’s kind of sad, IMHO.
Perhaps it would be better to say that while right conservatives are in the minority, there are also a sustantial number of posters that identify as libertarian, which doesn’t always fit neatly into a “left” or “right” mold.
Another reason though, why the board may tend to attract more lefties could possibly be explained by the fact that this board is a VERY gay friendly place (which is a good thing!). We’re very big on gay rights around here, which isn’t something that would endear us to most traditional right wing conservatives.
No, it doesn’t always fit neatly, but on the issue of what the role of government ought to be, I think the Libertarian philosophy is diametrically opposed to the liberal philosophy.
I don’t know **Airman **all that well, but Sam Stone is no social conservative. He’s very strongly libertarian in his views on social issues.
Actually, when that thought was framed, it was the LIBERALS (what we’d call libertarians today) who favored individual responisbility. I think you are mixing a 19th century philosophical debate with late 20th century nomenclature. I’m sure Liberal will be along shortly to expand on that.
I’m trying to form the Anarchist Party Dopers Association.
First, we will elect officers, then draft a mission statement and build an easily recognised platform.
Fuck that, I’m going for a beer. Anyone?
I always thought the name of this place generally kept a lot of social conservatives from ever discovering it. I doubt most of them would ever visit a website or read a column that had the word ‘dope’ in the title.
That hasn’t been my impression, but I could be wrong. Specifically what issues are you referring to? Sam, if you’re reading this, are you pro-gun control? Are you for government regulation of businesses and the environment? Are you for affirmative action? My take is that Libertarians tend to be against these things, but I’m certainly willing to change my mind if I’m wrong about that. (I’m not sure that Sam is a Libertarian, either.)
I don’t know what you mean by “when that thought was framed.” I’m of course referring to the words as they are currently used, not at some unspecified time in the past.
I’m not sure what your point of disagreement is here. Are you contending that, in this century, that conservatives are for more government regulations, and liberals are against it? I really don’t think that’s the case.
No, I don’t think I am, and nothing against Liberal, but I don’t really think his opinion reflects mainstream thinking.
Are all paying members of the SDMB regular posters to Great Debates and The Pit (which is where party affiliation comes out)? I don’t think so.
The real test is how many of the regular posters to these two forums are liberal or conservative, not what is the ratio of conservative regular posters to the entire membership of the SDMB.
<off-topic>Why isn’t there a “mostly Social Liberal and mostly Fiscal Conservative” party in the U.S.? I think many people would belong to this category. Anyway, I think there was a thread on this a while back, but I can’t find it</off-topic>
Imagine the poor ultra-conservative who, upon finding out he has cancer and only medicinal dosages marijuana will help him bear the upcoming chemotherapy, decides to come over to the Straight Dope only to find out there is no discernable info about marijuana … and let’s not even get into “straight”!!!
But, we expect politicians to root for hometown sports teams even if they really don’t care for the sport, and we expect politicians to portray themselves as “regular folks” even when we know it’s a complete sham. Both presidential candidates this year were children of privledge and Ivy League College graduates, but it is generally accepted that they need to act like the ‘regular folks’ that they aren’t and never have been. Maybe that’s sad, but it’s demanded.
Perhaps, but that wasn’t the premise of the OP. And party affiliation doesn’t mean squat. I am now, and have been since the day I registered, an independent. I voted for Clinton in 1996 (oops) and I’m voting for Kerry this year. A lockstep Republican I am not.
Even that’s a bit misleading. The obverse would be how many liberals can one name off the top of one’s head? Probably about 200 +/-100. Most poster’s political views are unknown, just like most private citizens views are unknown. It might be that they don’t care or it might be that they don’t want to get into the shouting matches in GD or the Pit. As someone who is probably more liberal than conservative, with more than a touch of libertarian and libertine thrown in, I’d guess that the board runs about 2 or 3 to 1 liberals vs conservatives, of the people who bother to make themselves heard. The rest are busy discussing the latest videogame, film, asking if a duck’s quack echos, or posting their picture and flirting.
From the The Straight Dope Message Board Home Page:
Come again? :dubious:
You’re relying on paid membership, I got the number from OVERALL membership.
Are you saying that you can only have a viewpoint if you’ve paid $14.95? :smack:
Factor of ten, my ass…(that viewpoint provided by someone who paid only $4.95)
DMC - A handful? Probably less than 10% (or 5%), but more than 0%…Just a WAG.
I’ll let Sam speak for himself, but he’s described himself as a libertarian (small “l”) on a number of occasions. I guess it depends on which non-fiscal issues you’re focussing on. If you talk about mixing religion and government, about abortion, or about regulating morality, there’s a big difference between Republican-type conservatives and libertarians.
Especially in recent years, conservatives have championed regulations in the social/privacy area while liberals have championed regulations in the market. To a lot of us, that’s just two sides of the same coin.
That’s a safe bet!
Let me be clearer on that. He’s described himself as more libertarian than conservative. Obviously, he’s got hawkish (non-libertarian) inclinations wrt Iraq.