This affects all parties, but why did ya choose republican, democrat, Libertarian, and for thoes sneakies privaTe

The Libertarian Party has my heart, but they'll not have my membership fee again until they get another nominee besides Harry Browne, whose extreme dovishness I was willing to put up with before 9/11, though not after. I'm also not convinced the LP is doing anything very effective electorally, and I want to see improvement there too. Not necessarily concrete results, just evidence they have a clue. So I'm currently directing my efforts within the party I consider the lesser evil, the GOP, which I'm attempting to influence in a more libertarian direction.

Why the LP originally? Because they're the closest to my Classical Liberal/Old Whig political philosophy. The Republicans are next closest, though not all that close. My loyalty is that ideal, not to any party. I view the party as merely a means to that end, and I'll choose whichever party I think most effectively promotes it.

I didn't choose to be a democrat. The concept of identifying your values with huge political marketing machines is flawed. I'd rather be a member of the Ranciduncle party.

Because I hate paying taxes.

I hate labels

And because each party has moderates and far wing portions.

I'm independent, because there is no political party that truly reflects my ideology.

I switch my AD party listing regularly, just for fun. I am not a "member" of any party. I have voted Green recently, I have voted Democratic in the past, but the only political groups I am actually a member of are the ACLU, the Sierra Club, and the National Front for the Liberation of Quarkhead.

Like Paul Wellstone, I belong to the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party which means I'm a bit further to the Left than most of the party's leaders (though not as much a Lefty as my buddy, Artemise).

I like some of the Republicans I've met locally and voted for some of them, but all n' all, the GOP is too conservative for me. I may move closer to the center as I get older, but I don't forsee a scenario where I would ever become a Republican.

I wish there were a political party that reflected my philosophy. Can't seem to find one that does.

I chose Independent because i think that both the Dems & the Repubs both have sound arguments.....most of the time

For example, i don't like Bush's environmental policies & i like Dick Gephart's HealthCare proposal

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Like several people here, there is no party which actually reflects most of my beliefs. Mu ideal party would combine elements of Socialism and Libertarianism (which already sounds a bit schizy) with a dash of the Greens. Clearly, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats do it for me. I voted for Al Gore in 2000 in an effort to prevent another Bush from getting his clutches on the White House - and that's as close as I come to any kind of "party loyalty".

I thoroughly look over every issue and decide accordingly; however of the two major parties, the Republican party advocates the ideas I espouse--limited government, free trade, and individualism--more so than the Democratic party.

Because we are living in a world we can't afford any more.

Because a Marxist World is a Perfect World.

Cause I'm a Conservative and I believe that a free market is a happy market. Also, I think that we're better off with defense with a Repub in charge. I basically agree with the whole party platform.

CP

I could never belong to a party that is actively against the constitution. That leaves out the demosocialists, greens, etc.

But I cannot go with the libertarians despite that I agree with much of their ideas because they are just too far out there! To be a lib is to practically be for anarchy. Its nuts!

So, I am left with the GOP even if we DO have leftists like McCain and Snowe and Chaffe in it!

I disagree. And while I have never officially been tested for sanity, I feel I can safely say it is intact

So how did I come to chose my party? Well, I used to consider myself a Republican. This was due to my mistaken notion that to be conservative I had to be a member of the GOP. I'll admit, I got sucked into that liberals suck, us vs. them mentality promoted by various AM radio hosts. I voted for Bush because I didn't want Gore to win.

But now here I am three years later and I've evolved away from that and moved closer to the Libertarian party. I was fooled by the GOP. The local party down here was run by incompetent old fools more concerned about raising money than ideals. The party leadership at the national level has also let me down. While I appreciate the tax cuts, the gross overspending frightens me.

Therefore, the only answer for me was to run off to some isolated island or to become a Libertarian. I was short on funds so I became a Libertarian.

I am not an active party member but I voted for Libertarians more often in 2002 than I voted for Republicans. Maybe I'm too optimistic about human capabilities. However, it's always been my contention that we are strong and we don't need the government as much as we have allowed ourselves to believe.

I also tend to think a lot more people are libertarians and just don't know it or are willing to admit it. Now maybe that's just a little too optimistic

I am a Democrat for strategic reasons. We have democratic primaries here in Florida and I use my vote either for or against a candidate.

In the Governor’s race this past year, Janet Reno ran against Bill McBride. I had to consider two things; who was the “lesser of the three evils” – Jeb, Janet or Bill and who would stand the better chance to beat Jeb.

In my opinion Bill and Jeb were a lesser evil than Janet. I also believe Janet might have beat Jeb if she was the democratic nominee, so my vote went to Bill in the primaries.

I simply didn’t want Janet as my Governor. So my votes were more against a candidate than for one.

Make sense?

I would have voted for Senator McCain had he been the Republican nominee in 2000. As it was, I voted for Gore because he did seem to have more concern for those who are not as well off than Dubya, whose cronies have been collecting on what he owes them ever since his inauguration. (Of course, that was the case for Clinton, too. There are more similarities between C and W than W would like to admit.)

The Republicans seem to side with major corporations more and have less concern for the needs of the rank and file. (If I'm wrong about this, I'm sure that a few of you will speak up.) I'm afraid that Congress is going to be reduced to rubber stamping the expressed wishes of corporations and the affluent. I do not see much activity regarding improvement of education, health care, the environment or the economy from Republicans.

The Democrats have a number of good people who, unless something big or unexpected happens, have little chance of defeating the Republican nominee. I will in all likelihood join the Democratic party and work hard for whoever turns out to be the nominee.

I do not think that "Liberal" is a bad word. I welcome the label. To me, it has much better connotations than "Conservative."

I am a Democratic Socialist because it's more in left field than the Democratic party (you could call me a Wellstone Dem). Plus the fact that I agree that Socialism is the way to freedom and happiness. Unfortunately there's a stigma attached to the word "Socialist". When I actually come of age to vote, I probably won't even vote for the DemSocialists (for the obvious reason that I don't want to waste a vote, save that I would be wasting a vote on any other candidate).

And can anyone explain how the DemSocs and the Greens are "actively against the constitution"?

I am registered republican for the primaries. I could write a 3-page doctrine on what's going on in Nevada right now, but I'd bet you'd all lose interest after the third paragraph since none of it affects you, unless you are already in Nevada, but then you'd already know what I'm talking about.

That's not to say that when the actual election comes about, I vote all party line though.

Overall, most of my opinions are shared by the GOP, but I don't go the extreme that they sometimes do. If they dropped the whole "our country was founded on judeo-christian beliefs" and their faith-based programs, I might feel closer to the average republican.

Unfortunately, as many point out, there is no party that shares my beliefs exactly, and even if there were, I still wouldn't vote for that party in our current two party system. Sometimes you just have to weigh the decision to vote for someone on principle, or vote a way in which the person that you really don't like does not get into office.

I initially chose my party because the Democrats seem to be far friendlier to the farmer. I was raised on a farm, the first of my family to graduate from college. As time has gone by, I have realized that I am more conservative than 90% of the Democratic party, and probably 50% of the Republican party. However, I am loathe to leave the Dems, as that is the party of my family through history. I am finding, though, that I vote about 60-70% Republican anymore, simply for their stands on issues of abortion and the military. So, I'm either a Conservative Democrat, or a Demopublican!

Kevin S. Bailey

Ooh, good topic! I am a slightly liberal Republican. I oppose the death penalty, I think gays should be left the hell alone, and largely hate simplistic, so called, "Christians." Nearly everything else about me agrees with Republicans. I think the party has the best solutions, often the only solutions, but I am in a constant struggle to remove that book of fairy tales from the debate. And I think that if there were no Christians in the party, virtually no one (who actually thinks at all) would ever vote for another Democrat, because we totally own them on nearly all the social issues, national security, and economics. (Before you liberals flip about that last part, keep in mind that Reagan brought in historically high revenues to California, and then to the whole country, but Dems spent ~$1.47 for every $1.00 he brought in. And keep in mind that President Bush's tax cuts are recovering this economy from the dive Clinton left it in, and from his 8-yr non-response to Al Queda that wrecked our economy. Oh yes, and lets not forget how well Dems have handled California.)

I yearn to vote for independents or third party candidates. My affiliation with the Democratic party is largely an adverse reaction to the policies of Reagan and G.W. Bush. I believe I would be seeking out a viable middle ground between the Green Party and the Libertarian Party if McCain had been elected in 2000.

The republican agenda and its recent effectiveness make me look to the Democratic Party on nearly a straight ticket basis.

Now I am dreaming of the rise of a Neo-Populist Party. maybe I will try to get us to lay down a platform on another thread one of these days.

I'm a Democrat because my personal beliefs are MUCH more aligned with the Dems than other parties (save the Green Party, which would be nice if we weren't in a two-party dominated system). I am also a registered Dem because I want the power to be able to have a say in who gets the "nod" from the Democratic party for elections - I want to help choose the person who will be representing ME (Dem, since Green candidates don't have a chance at this point in time) in the elections and I can't do that if I register with another party. I'm pretty darn close to the "end of the line" in terms of "leftness" and would almost never vote for a Republican, save a VERY few instances...



I, too, would have voted for McCain in 2000 had he been the Presidential nominee of the GOP, despite my status as a "librul" - I like the fact that he (at least appears to) stands up for what he believes regardless of whether that is "okay" in his party or not. I want a leader who is respected, not just by the American people, but by world leaders, since foreign relations are a BIG part of presidency. McCain would have, IMO, made an outstanding president. He would have been one of the few people I can imagine who really could have accomplished a "coming together of the minds" across parties. Obviously I'm biased as an Arizonan , but his status as an Arizonan has nothing to do with my political feelings about him OR my personal feelings about him. McCain, IMO, would have BLOWN Gore away in the polls...something that would have been good for the country as opposed to the election nightmare that ensued in the Bush/Gore 2000 election

In 2000 (the first Presidential election in which I was old enough to vote), I voted for Nader. Not because I liked him for President, but because I despised the other "viable" options. Gore is a robot, Bush is a puppet. Being from a Republican state (AZ, though I think we're starting to become more balanced) I knew my vote wouldn't "matter" in the sense of deciding who would get AZ's electoral votes - so I used my right to vote to express my extreme disappointment in the two-party choices.

Why did I choose the Green Party? As Arianna Huffington campaigns for; I believe in clean elections. I don't want big business money influencing our political system. I'm very liberal when it comes to social issues, such as capital punishment, gay rights, etc., and I'm favorable of sensible environmental safeguards. Just take a look at the Democratic or Green platform, and that's what best represents me. I support Democrats for the most part, but in my heart fit with the true Greens of America.

I have always agreed with the Republican ideology because at its core is the idea of taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. While I do believe in compasion and understanding I do not believe in enabling. I don't think the government is entitled to more of my money simply because they can think of a million things to spend it on. It is evident to me that the government is the worst run "corporation" in the country and the Republican party pushes tax cuts. I know that there are corrupt Republican politicians but feel that the Democrats are more corrupt. I do not believe in using racism to "diversify" school campusses and I am completely against abortion (I will not call it a woman's right to choose). My biggest problem with the Republican party is the focus on religion as I am not a religious person .

I doubt that anyone can find an exact fit. You pick what is closest to your values and do what you can to see that move in that direction. Freedom, capitalism, personal responsibility etal is what we are and the republicans are closest to filling that bill. Needless to say what is best also works.